Emad Mostaque on Decentralised AI: Empowering Humanity at Singularity Summit 2024
Exploring the Transformative Power of Decentralised AI to Create Equitable Access and Enhance Collective Intelligence
Emad Mostaque, Founder of Stability AI and CEO of Schelling AI, delivered a compelling keynote at the SingularityU South Africa Summit 2024, advocating for a future where decentralised AI empowers individuals and nations alike to ensure equitable access to this transformative technology, ultimately increasing the collective intelligence of humanity.
“AI allows us to do more things, as everyone has access to an army of really intelligent graduates at their fingertips,” said Emad Mostaque, Founder of Stability AI and CEO of Schelling AI, as he addressed hundreds of delegates at the SingularityU South Africa Summit 2024, in collaboration with Old Mutual. He took to the stage on day 1 of the summit to talk about ‘the future of decentralised Al’, alongside a host of other local and global speakers at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Mostaque began by highlighting the exponential growth of AI adoption globally, which is outpacing the adoption of both computers and the internet. He emphasised the immense potential of AI to augment human intelligence with its human-level performance across the board, accuracy of responses, and high recall function.
“This isn’t something we thought would happen quite so quickly, even those of us in the industry, running these big computers,” he said.
“This technology should be open and free,” Mostaque declared, as he shared his experience in building a powerful supercomputer using open-source communities. Mostaque stressed the importance of decentralising AI, warning against the dangers of black-box models controlled by a few entities. “We cannot afford to have technology that drives our living and supports our living controlled by a few,” Mostaque said. “We have to decentralise it. We have to open it up. We cannot have black boxes.”
His vision for the future involves placing a supercomputer in every country, enabling the creation of fully open data sets and AI models tailored to local needs. This approach, he believes, will empower nations to control their own data and AI development, ensuring that the benefits of this transformative technology are distributed equitably.
The global speaker also highlighted the remarkable advancements in AI model size and energy efficiency, predicting that within a year, a GPT-4 level intelligence will consume only a fraction of the energy required by current models.
He emphasised the potential for AI to become an accessible and sustainable tool for individuals and communities. Mostaque’s enthusiasm for the democratisation of AI was palpable, as he shared his belief that open-source models and decentralised infrastructure can empower every child and individual to reach their full potential.
“Our mission is to increase the intelligence of humanity,” Mostaque declared, underscoring the transformative power of AI when placed in the hands of many, rather than a few. As the audience listened on intently, it became clear that Mostaque’s vision for a decentralised AI future holds the promise of unlocking new frontiers of human potential and ushering in a more equitable and empowered global society.
