Blockchain companies are creating AI chatbots to help developers.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) market is becoming one of the fastest growing industries in the world. According to market research firm Neck Move Strategy Consulting, the current AI market is worth nearly $100 billion and is predicted to grow exponentially.
Given this, it is no surprise that chatbots using AI are also on the rise. According to the latest findings from the preliminary research, the global chatbot market size will reach USD 840 million by 2022.
AI chatbots for Web3 developers in the works
As opportunities around AI and chatbots grow in various industries, the Web3 sector is also starting to take advantage of this trend as blockchain companies create AI chatbots to help them build applications faster and more efficiently.
Anchal Malhotra, Head of Research at RippleX – an organization focused on the development and growth of the XRP Ledger at Ripple – told Cointelegraph that RippleX is currently building an AI chatbot where XRP Ledger developers can ask questions.
“Instead of wading through all the documentation and client libraries, developers can direct their questions to an AI chatbot for quick answers. This makes developers' lives much easier as it shortens the time it takes for ideas to become applications.”
Skale Labs – the team behind the Skale blockchain network – is also building an AI-powered chatbot. Scale Labs co-founder and CEO Jack O'Holler told Cointelegraph that the Scale network has built-in AI and machine learning capabilities that allow developers to run pre-trained AI models in smart contracts.
“AI-driven smart contracts are highly fire resistant without human intervention. This allows developers to build faster and more efficiently,” he said.
O'Holleran shared that the Scale AI chatbot will be released soon, and that one of the use cases for AI is to support engineering development.
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“Devs are now building with AI support at record efficiency and productivity. One key area of support is rapid access to knowledge of technical and code documentation,” he said.
Echoing this, Matthew van Niekerk, CEO and founder of SettleMint – a blockchain programming tool – told Cointelegraph that AI tools are becoming essential for developers.
Van Niekerk explained that Settlemint recently added the AI Genie engineering assistant to its platform for faster smart contract development and quality assurance testing and debugging.
“Our AI Genie is built to help companies rapidly develop their blockchain applications to take advantage of the $3.1 trillion opportunity enabled by blockchain,” said Van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk went on to point out that the Settlemint Eye Genie is meant to support humans, not replace them. This is important to highlight, because there is a looming fear that AI-powered assistants may eventually replace human workers.
“The tool itself acts as an engineering assistant, not an engineer. It's built to remove the mundane processes and complexities that prevent developers and engineers from focusing on building innovative solutions that deliver a clear return on investment for their business,” explains Van Niekerk.
To put this into perspective, William Baxter, chief technology officer and co-founder of tokenization platform Vertalo, told Cointelegraph that his company currently uses chatbots to summarize and present information to internal and external audiences. Baxter believes assisted learning is one of the most promising general applications for chatbots:
“Rather than searching for a topic and filtering the results or relying on a moderator, a chatbot allows you to summarize a lot of information. Combined with web access and using prompts to include links to primary sources, this expands online research dramatically. When learning a new programming language, blockchain, or application, feedback from a chatbot can be very helpful, even if it's not completely accurate.
Challenges can lead to implementation delays.
Although AI-powered chatbots have the potential to help Web3 developers build better, several challenges may slow adoption.
For example, O'Holleran notes that while AI-driven smart contracts can accelerate technical progress, these applications often require on-chain performance at the expense of predictability and automation.
“This can cause problems in a network with high gas charges and variable charges, because the expected cost can vary greatly and it can become expensive by accident,” he said.
To combat this, O'Holleran said the scale network has on-chain fees instead of gas fees, which means overall fees are lower and more predictable.
Lydia Marks, director of communications at Magma AI — a project that builds an AI chatbot that provides users with a virtual Web3 technology learning assistant — told Cointelegraph that ethical bias is also a problem with AI chatbots.
“It's very easy for AI systems like Magma to pick up biases during data training, which in turn can negatively impact the entire ecosystem,” she said. To combat this, Mark shared that Magma AI uses bias detection and mitigation techniques.
Yet, one of the biggest challenges associated with AI chatbots is data privacy and security. Van Niekerk explained that companies building or using AI assistants should consider internal business policies and government regulations regarding privacy.
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“Large enterprises may have restrictions on the use of generative AI technologies due to data privacy breaches. SettleMint's AI Genie is purposely built into the platform as an optional tool so that enterprises can only step in when they want and need it,” he said.
Challenges aside, Van Niekerk says that overall, AI chatbots are helping to make the Web3 more inclusive and accessible to more developers.
“The knowledge and expertise is now there to support the new devs entering the space. Web2 devs can accelerate their Web3 learning and skill curve, respectively, with AI developer support technology.
