TLDR: The Near Foundation is developing an innovative AI-powered system that uses ‘digital twins’ to represent decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) members in governance votes, aiming to significantly boost participation and efficiency in blockchain decision-making.
The Near Foundation is spearheading a groundbreaking initiative to revolutionize decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance by introducing AI-powered ‘digital twins’ to participate in voting processes. This development, unveiled by Lane Rettig, a researcher at the Near Foundation specializing in AI and governance, at the Token2049 conference in Singapore, seeks to address the pervasive issue of low voter participation and potential centralization within DAOs. Industry estimates suggest that participation rates in DAOs typically hover between 15% and 25%, leading to concerns about centralized power, ineffective decision-making, and vulnerability to governance attacks where malicious actors could pass damaging proposals unnoticed.
The core concept involves AI delegates that learn and adapt to individual user preferences, effectively voting on their behalf. Rettig articulated that this system aims to transform the often slow and manual governance process into an ‘almost instant’ ‘math problem.’ While the long-term vision includes replacing human actors with these digital twins to resolve voter apathy, a crucial element of the strategy is maintaining a ‘human in the loop’ for critical decisions, such as fund allocations or significant strategic shifts. This ensures that complex judgments requiring human intuition and ethical considerations are not fully automated.
The rollout of these AI delegates is planned in stages. Initially, the system will offer chatbot-like assistants providing summaries and suggestions for proposals. Subsequent phases will involve AI representing larger groups with similar interests, eventually progressing to individual AI agents for each DAO member. The Near Foundation already employs an AI tool called ‘Pulse’ within its main DAO, the Near Digital Collective. Pulse actively tracks community sentiment, summarizes discussions across platforms like Discord, and highlights important content, demonstrating the foundation’s existing commitment to AI integration in its ecosystem.
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This move comes amidst a broader trend of increasing AI adoption in the crypto space. Investment manager VanEck projects a significant surge in AI agents within the crypto industry, estimating their number to have surpassed 10,000 by the end of 2024 and anticipating it to exceed 1 million by 2025. However, the integration of AI agents is not without its challenges. Concerns regarding potential security risks and the possibility of AI bungling important decisions are acknowledged. To mitigate these, the Near Foundation is focusing on developing a verifiable model training system, which will provide cryptographic proof of the AI’s training cycles and inputs, aiming to ensure alignment with user values and maintain trust in the automated governance process.
