2021 has been great for the crypto markets. Not only did the price of most tokens saw a significant rise, but we also got new sub-sectors to arise. NFTs and DAOs were the most popular ones, and both have been trying to find opportunities to implement their core values into the real world, as the two slowly start to intertwine.
When looking specifically at NFTs, we saw brands and celebrities join the movement of digital scarcity. We also saw many online marketplaces gain popularity (Rarible, OpenSea, Nifty Gateway) and other companies considering the implementation of NFT marketplaces in their existing product offering (Coinbase, Bitlevex, etc.).
The latest trend, however, came just last month, when we first came across the concept of iNFTs, otherwise known as intelligent NFTs. What are these and how will they change the NFT landscape? In this article we deep dive into this new concept and help you see through the lines.
What are iNFTs?
iNFTs are non-fungible tokens with artificial intelligence embedded in their “personality”. The concept was created and popularized by Arif Khan, the CEO of an ambitious project that aims to merge AI with blockchain technology – Alethea AI.
The artificial intelligence merged with the NFTs allows them to do several things, including interactive communication, creation of art, work, as well as other things that give it a real personality. The company believes that these traits will develop further over the next decade and will eventually enable NFTs to become real individuals in Metaverses.
The process is really simple – Users buy NFTs from collections that Alethea AI supports. They also buy “iNFT pods” from OpenSea, and pair the two together on Noah’s Ark, which can be accessed from within Alethea AI.
By pairing the two, users can train their iNFTs to increase in level through staking ALI tokens and taking several actions on the platform over time, which in turn makes the paired NFT able to take specific actions. The more advanced iNFTs known as “Revenants” sold for large amounts of ETH upon their release on OpenSea, which the first iNFT known as “Alice” sold on Sotheby’s for nearly $500.000.
What can we expect from iNFTs in the next few years?
Intelligent NFTs are simply the next generation of non-fungible tokens. While currently it is easy to spot how they are completely different from a “human” nature, we expect the line to become thinner in the years to come. This is because iNFTs will eventually develop intelligence that will be comparable and competitive to that of humans today. In turn, this will open the door for passive income opportunities which can be tapped into by those who train and develop iNFTs.
Let’s illustrate that with a couple of examples:
iNFT influencer
Today, many people use social media platforms to collect a large amount of followers, which in turn acts as a marketing platform for product promotion. These influencers have to promote their body/personality through social media to gain more and more followers who trust them for their decision making processes.
iNFTs could, theoretically, act as influencers as well, since they are able to make photos and videos similar to humans, conveying any message that their owner wants them to. While not “real” as we are used to it, digital influencers have been part of the gaming industry and adult industry for years already, and we even start to see some of them make their way into instagram as well.
By building up an iNFT to become an influencer of, say, Instagram, their owner will be able to strike partnership deals, sponsorships, and free products in exchange for promotion. In layman’s terms, the iNFT could work as your “digital employee” for you to take the profits.
iNFT Metaverse employee
If iNFTs are really able to be trained to a point where they can compete with human intelligence, then several working positions will easily become replaceable by this AI. We already see this happening with customer service or service agents on phone lines. Naturally, this will extend to more roles in the virtual world.
Those who, from this moment, start to understand and train iNFTs will be able to get a competitive advantage when such functionalities become available. Their iNFTs will be able to work, create different forms of art, or even act as a companion (albeit with limits) in the Metaverse. How this will affect our world today is yet to be seen, but we expect that creative roles will become more important, and more humans will choose to pursue these roles.
Overall, intelligent NFTs will most likely be the key to the humanization of AI in virtual realities. This is not a scene from “Blade Runner” but actually where the world is headed. Are you ready for it?
