VIDEO: Hut34 claims world first platform agnostic network for Chatbots, IoT, AI and more

What if you could enabled AI, bots, IoT ​​​and​ ​other​ ​digital​ ​services​ ​and​ ​data​ ​sets​ ​to connect,​ ​interact​ ​and​ ​monetise​ ​data​ ​information​ ​and​ ​knowledge?

Hut34 is an organisation that wants to create such a platform agnostic network, and launched an "entropy token sale" on 2 November to "establish the token ecosystem and fund further development.”

SingularityNET is another company wanting to build something similar, using the AI-based Sophia robot to generate excitement, and you can read about it and see my video interview here, but the idea of an AI marketplace is clearly not unique, and competition between players is a good thing and there will be future consolidation to come. 

So, Hut34 started by paints a scenario, stating that while "data volumes, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) are growing rapidly, data remains tightly controlled and monetised by large corporates, domain specific A.I. often has deep but narrow wells of knowledge, and general search tools like Google, Alexa or Siri spread a very wide net, but lack the deep focus or context we often need."

{loadposition alex08}What Hut34 is to create "the best of all worlds", where you can "benefit from open access to the resources of a wide and deep global knowledge base and the growing data volumes that drive it."

We're told that "participation and growth on the Hut34 Network will be fuelled by a blockchain-based cryptocoin called Entropy and the Hut34 Protocol, which will allow network participants to connect, route queries, resolve answers and monetise their data transactions."

Hut34 explaied that "one of the fastest growing trends in AI is automated chatbots, mechanised assistants and content platforms that work like a conversation to fulfil the queries of customers, users and peers," and quotes Gartner research predicting that, by 2020, "chatbots will power 85% of all customer interactions."

However, we're then told that, "problematically, monetisation of this space remains tightly controlled by large corporates, and elusive for many smaller producers, who struggle to profit from their data, information or expertise."

So, what's a bit of background to show the new functionality such a system could create, Hut34 said "Dacebook Messenger was home to 100,000 chatbots in April 2017," and that "the service has 1.9 billion monthly active users."

"That's a lot of people accessing content generated by chatbots and other digital services. Imagine if all those chatbot and services could seamlessly trade information, improving user experience whilst profiting for their owners?"

Hut34 said it is "building the network to achieve this."

Here's Hut34's video:

Tim​ ​McNamara​ ​System​ ​Architect​ ​of​ ​Hut34, puts this into perspective, stating: “Imagine weather buff Alice builds her own chatbot that responds to its users queries about tomorrow’s forecast. She has lots of users but can’t figure out how to monetise her content.

"She meets Bob, who runs a chatbot that shares jokes. Bob’s already part of the Hut34 network where he earns Entropy tokens from his content. He sets the price his content gets when another Hut34 content provider uses it.

“Charlie is a customer of Bob’s joke chatbot and uses it every day. One day he realises he’d like to know what the weather’s going to be like, so he asks Bob’s joke chatbot. Bob’s service doesn’t have weather data, so it sends a query across the Hut34 Network to find out. Alice’s weather chatbot, now part of the Network and the highest ranking content provider in her domain, answers Charlie’s question.

“Bob’s chatbot pays Alice’s chatbot for the information. Bob’s happy because he’s still got Charlie’s attention. Charlie’s happy because he hasn’t had to leave the customer experience he enjoys in Bob’s joke chatbot. And Alice is happy because she earns tokens seamlessly from her content.

“But it's about much more than just weather, jokes or even chatbots. Users accessing data through devices connected to the Hut34 Network are potential buyers with all that accompanying potential. You might deploy a bot for your users that doesn’t have access to any particular domain of data but instead searches the Hut34 Network for the best result, serving it to your users along with advertising. Maybe your bot routes its users to commercial operators to answer their questions and they pay you a referral fee. The list goes on…,” McNamara continued.

Key features of the Hut 34 Network:

Connect

• Connection provides instant access to the user bases of all connected platforms and services e.g. Facebook, Skype, and Slack. Connection is simple and straightforward and can be done through operating your own network node (which we call “Huts”) or connecting to the Hut34 Platform.

Route

• Route your queries into the Hut34 Network according to your needs.

Resolve

• Use your Hut, our managed service or another 3rd party service to rank answers returned from the network to resolve your queries. Successful resolution adds utility and value to your service and end customer.

Monetise

• Earn Entropy tokens by providing others access to your data, information or knowledge. Access a global network to deploy your expertise or marketing.
• Add utility to your existing service, making it more useful and again more valuable.
• Build on our layer - sell services that improve network features in exchange for Entropy Tokens.

Hut34 reminded us that: The time for an open. An intelligent distributed and monetised data network like Hut34 is very much here. Accenture says the chatbot market will be worth US$1.86bn in 2020. McKinsey says the IoT market will be worth US$6.1 trillion by 2025, and PWC says AI will add US$15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

“Hut34's proof of concept is operational today, and we're launching the Entropy Token Sale on the 2nd November, to establish the token ecosystem and fund further development," McNamara concluded.

Clearly, if Hut34 are successful in their Entropy Token Sale, and can fund the next stage of their journey, the potential is there, as it is with SingularityNET in the future, to be or add to the catalyst that takes the AI revolution to the next level of evolution bringing forth the greater fusion of man and machine - hopefully for the benefit of us all, and not a future of time-looped dystopian Termination.

Here are some relevant links for more information:

• Hut34 Website
• Hut34, the problem, solution and token sale (Hut in 1) 
• Hut34 Entropy sale
• Hut34 Whitepaper
• Hut34 Medium