A new web3 network is being built that aims to end big tech companies’ control over your data

Many people building Web3 feel that the traditional Web ecosystem exploits users and their data. While it has benefited many businesses, data explorers and even artificial intelligence models, some consider it an overreach.

Tegan Kline, CEO and co-founder of Edge and Node, said on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast that some of the problems with today’s web (called web 2.0 by some focused on web3) is its centralization.

“A few big companies own and control everything we see online, they own our data and our digital footprint, they can de-platform us, and there are a lot of people who want to keep our attention,” Klein said. That attention is being monetized.” “This is not the Internet we had high hopes for in the early days of the web.”

She and others are trying to change that through the integration of web3 and artificial intelligence. “We are working towards a decentralized internet and giving power back to users.”

Edge and Node is a company focused on creating and supporting decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols. It is the original team supporting The Graph, a decentralized network for indexing, querying and organizing data. It is called the “Google of web3” and aims to organize open blockchain data and make open data a public good.

The graph has “subgraphs” which are like open APIs that provide query services. Therefore, as long as users use applications built on The Graph, the indexer in the background will organize the data and provide information.

“Web3 is still being built, and we’re still working hard to build this censorship-resistant decentralized web. So, innovation is happening today, and I believe this is where the web is going, and this will be the next evolution of the web.” This is a growing industry, not a shrinking industry.”

The Graph launched a “new era” roadmap in November, laying out how it will use the $50 million it raised last year.

Briefly, the goals include expanding its data services to reach larger markets, supporting developers, improving network performance, and creating data tools. Kline noted that it also includes plans to help implement large language models (LLMs), one of the most popular ways to build artificial intelligence chat programs, thanks to OpenAI.

“One of the really important things about artificial intelligence is that it’s all about data,” Klein said. “There’s a saying that whoever rules the data rules the world, so it’s really important that data is not owned and controlled by any one company, especially in the field of artificial intelligence.”

The Graph is working to allow users to pull data from its network and other blockchains to use that content to train artificial intelligence. “Since we launched The Graph, the use cases and data needs have exploded,” Kline said. “There are so many different data needs, and The Graph Network will serve all of them in a decentralized way for entrepreneurs and builders in the ecosystem and the users of their apps and projects.”

Klein believes that it is important for artificial intelligence to be trained in a completely open source way. “If you look at open source AI today, they are open source in some ways, but the data they are trained on is not open source.”

For now, it can be said that most artificial intelligence is not on the blockchain train yet. “If you go to a traditional artificial intelligence conference, they don’t care,” Klein said. “I think the blockchain space is more interested in artificial intelligence than artificial intelligence is in the blockchain space.”

The AI ​​community needs more acceptance, but over time, Klein believes the relationship between AI and blockchain will evolve and shift. “Using new business models and new incentive structures that are emerging through tokens and token economies and decentralized infrastructure, that’s where artificial intelligence gets really interesting.”

This story was inspired by an episode of the TechCrunch podcast Chain Reaction. subscription chain reaction Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform to hear more stories and tips from entrepreneurs building today’s most innovative companies.

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