Franklin Templeton makes bold prediction for Open-Source AI and crypto

Franklin Templeton Digital Assets dropped its perspective on open-source artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential in decentralized networks. It suggests that the future of AI might not just be in the hands of a few, but of many.

As of now, the AI ecosystem is dominated by a few major players, like Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon. They have been investing billions to maintain their leadership in this space. A similar adoption can be seen in the crypto market where investors are putting their money into projects backed by AI.

Franklin Templeton warns of AI’s rising barriers

The asset manager in a detailed study mentioned that the biggest of the industry players’ investments is creating extremely high barriers to entry which have led to challenges such as monopolistic pricing power, lack of transparency, and biased outputs.

On the other hand, decentralized AI models have allowed a more inclusive space by lowering barriers to entry and reducing monopolistic tendencies. It basically opened up opportunities for a wider range of developers and innovators to join this evolution. It added that Open-source models have helped consumers to understand Al’s logic and build trust within regulatory oversight.

Franklin Templeton highlighted that OpenAI has emerged as a dominant force in this race, with its GPT models, like ChatGPT, leading the way. But as OpenAI’s influence grows, so do the ethical questions around its market dominance.

OpenAI’s monopoly or a new era?

Since the launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI has grown from 1 million users in just five days to over 200 million weekly active users by November 2024. It officially set the pace in the AI industry. The study suggested that ChatGPT attracted more than 3.7 billion visits in October 2024, this was much more than its competitors. It has projected revenues of $3.7 billion in 2024 and $11.6 billion in 2025.

Founded as a nonprofit back in 2015, OpenAI promised to make its research open-source. In 2019, it shifted to a “capped-profit” model and transitioned to closed-source models. This move raised several questions about its original mission. But, its transition to a for-profit entity in 2024 came as a shocker.

Moving ahead, OpenAI’s GPT-3 is part of a larger trend with companies like Google and Anthropic following suit. It has shifted the spotlight towards key questions about accessibility, transparency, and who controls the future of AI. Just like any other field, there are experts who argue that closed-source models are necessary for safety and responsible AI deployment.

The asset manager suggests that the AI space is facing a dilemma of centralized, closed systems vs. decentralized, open models. It added that Meta’s LLaMa is one of the few open-source alternatives, but it’s clear that the future of it could be shaped by these fundamental choices.

Blockchain can break big tech’s AI monopoly

Franklin Templeton notes that the dominance of OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon in foundational AI model development is centralizing control, but blockchain technology offers a way to decentralize this power and level the playing field.

It added that the blockchain can add an economic layer to open-source AI code. This will allow developers globally to compete fairly. For the first time, contributors can monetize their models, data, and innovations, combining the best of open-source and closed-source benefits. 

By unlocking global contributions to AI, blockchain could reshape how value is created, distributed, and governed, leading to a more innovative, diverse, and equitable economy. The next-gen internet could be community-driven.

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