What happens when machines not only think for us but also protect our rights? From blockchain voting in South Korea to AI health assistants, these tools are making governance more accountable and life more equitable, putting the power of progress in people’s hands. Are we ready for a future where trust and transparency are coded, not controlled?

Blockchain and AI, particularly machine learning, are two quite recent revolutionary technologies that are being adopted by Governments and Businesses in all sorts of ways.

A lot of discussion has been going on about how blockchain and AI affect governments and businesses. If AI has been around for quite a long time, the more recent Blockchain technology has taken the world by storm, as a database system that provides us with a simple protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure, peer-to-peer, immediate and in constant flow.

The beautiful promise of blockchain is that it distributes the trust which is currently allocated to centralised, large and powerful intermediaries, to a large global network of people engaged in massive collaboration, facilitated by clever coding and cryptography. Adding AI to the equation ( which is the only solution possible for the large amounts of data resulting from decentralisation and mass collaboration), the possibilities opening up in front of our eyes are unimaginable.

But how are blockchain and AI helping Governments and Businesses focus on what is more important, which is not returns on investment, but the well-being of people?

Whenever an important innovation arises on the horizon, fear steps in,  as people find it hard to accept change. Acceptance of these new technologies may thus not be uniform; depending on various reasons, some societies may accept certain changes brought by technology faster than other societies. So when it comes to the citizen impact of the blockchain and AI, we can expect this to be the case as well, where you live conditions what types of needs you have. But regardless of that, again, with the massive number of people holding a phone, on a global scale, AI is already widespread.

Blockchain Paradigm: Present & Future Digital ID, Infographic by Dinis Guarda

Impact of AI and blockchain on citizens

Taking a visionary look at what the blockchain and AI can bring to the common citizen, is that these 2 technologies might be what we need to implement the structural changes in the world,  enabling us to become a global society. Just look at Wikipedia, it is a system of knowledge, a gigantic encyclopedia, made by anonymous systems from all corners of the world.

Ideally, in that society of the future, blockchain in conjunction with AI, could enable us to make all citizens intimately connected and participating in a system which is not centralised and run by powerful institutions anymore, but by a decentralised infrastructure which is distributed, fairer and more democratic.

This grand narrative and vision are still far from reality, as first and foremost, one needs to tackle important disparities still happening in the world, particularly in terms of financial inequality. It is important to stress here that citizen impact from AI and the blockchain will not be on the same level, as far as developed and developing countries are concerned. This is because of the vast differences in structures, processes, systems and infrastructure in place.

Some of these issues were highlighted in the 2017 Blockchain Economic Forum, which was held in New York. At this meeting, one of the speakers, Christian Ferri, identified the fact that citizens in developed countries already have many of these things in place, either provided by the government or through the organised private sector.

Evidently, blockchain and AI will also impact citizens living in developed countries, but that impact will just happen in a different way, as their needs are different.

Exploring the core technologies of the 4IR ecosystem, Infographic by Dinis Guarda

Impact of AI / Blockchain On Education for Citizens

AI and the blockchain will change the way citizens can study. The role of AI in education is expected to expand by 47.50% from 2017 to 2021, according to a report on the Artificial Intelligence Market in the US Education Sector.

When one thinks of AI in study and research, Google Search and Siri immediately come to mind. Results of searches made on Google for any item are all based on AI algorithms, and anyone who has used Google Search from its early days until now will quickly notice just how smart the search engine has become in terms of results delivered.

Artificial intelligence is likely to find the following applications in the educational sector, changing the way teachers and students interact in the classroom.

1. Grading of exam and test scripts will be taken over by AI-driven robots. This is already being applied in computer-based testing, which programs computers to mark scripts based on multiple-choice answer models. However, grading of written scripts may also be taken up by intelligent computers, freeing up time for teachers to do more teaching and research (Lynch, 2018).
2. It is also possible that some element of the teaching process will be handled by AI-robots. This will transform the role of teachers and lecturers in the future, moving them into positions of learning facilitation and motivation.
3. In the same way, robots can contribute to the teaching process, students may also get some form of AI support in the form of learning companionship provided by AI bots. An application for this technology could be in providing learning support for students with learning disabilities such as autism and attention-deficit disorders. Mika is an AI-based tutoring tool from Carnegie Learning for students who cannot attend after-school tutorials.
4. AI-driven machines and robots can also be used to create smart content. AI systems can create digital formats out of lecture notes, textbooks and customizable digital platforms that can be built to suit all age groups. This technology is already in use in some educational institutions. AI-driven applications already in the market include the Google Classroom Comment bank, Netex Learning, Brainly, Thinkster Math and Cram101.

Infographic by DInis Guarda

Impact of AI/blockchain on citizen recreation

When it comes to the use of AI and the blockchain in leisure activities, a ready example presents itself in the video gaming world. Video games represent the earliest applications of artificial intelligence, dating back more than 40 years. However, the application of AI in the world of gaming and sports virtual reality is becoming a lot more sophisticated.

Many gaming companies are now investing in the use of the blockchain to deliver their products to a global audience. Barriers to entry for developers and clients are being reduced, and this will create an entirely new ecosystem of creative innovations and game development (Heitner, 2018). Ultimately, the user experience of gamers all over the world will be very different from what it used to be.

Traditional sports are also starting to tap into the world of gaming and virtual reality sports. AI will enable consumers of sports content to get a better feel and involvement in virtual reality sports that mimic or even surpass the experience obtained from actual sports. Those who were fortunate enough to use the early two-player video games of the 70s and 80s can see an unbelievable transformation in the industry, with the development of the “one human – AI player” games such as Grand Theft Auto or FIFA Soccer Pro.

There is an almost limitless array of scenarios that can be generated using the AI algorithms in these games that would be hard to generate if another human were to take the place of the AI player.

Other examples in terms of recreation are interesting platforms of creatives, run cooperatively, such as Re(so)nate and Spotify. Resonate is a streaming music service cooperative owned by the people that use it – musicians, indie labels, fans + developers. The platform is blockchain-based, and unlike other streaming companies, it is a direct-to-artist and pay-as-you-listen.

Its goal is to be able to pay artists up to 2.5x more than its competitors, while also offering better data and management tools. Stocksy is an artist-owned cooperative that sells stock photography. The co-op is based in Victoria, British Columbia, and is built on the idea that the artists who contribute photos to the site should receive fair pay and have sustainable careers. Artist-members license images to Stocksy and receive 50 per cent commission on sales and share any surplus income at the end of each year.

Blockchain Web3.0 roadmap, Indographic by Dinis Guarda

Future of blockchain and AI technology

AI and the blockchain will impact the lives of citizens in many ways, just the way smartphones have changed the way people live, work and play since they came on stream in 2006. One thing that stands out from this discussion is that some of these changes can produce desirable changes and at the same time, bring about undesirable ones.

Imagine a world where people do not have to work so much because A-driven robots will think, say and do virtually everything for them. Will we have so much efficiency that the very essence of humanity is lost? Will we have a world filled with human zombies without life or work skills, communicative abilities or dulled brains? Or will we have more space to truly engage in deeper forms of communication and connection, having more time to engage more deeply with politics, our families, our friends, now that most of our time dedicated to boring repetitive activities is performed by robots?

Even more concerning is the fact that AI is only as good as the data that constitutes its building blocks. Good data will lead to good AI, but what kind of AI will be produced from malicious data or data that has been tinkered with?

This brings us to the bigger question: should human existence be perfect? Isn’t the very essence of life to experience happiness and some sadness, progress with some challenges and also results produced from a thought process which is then delivered through actual work? How would humanity handle a world where machines do everything and we just exist? Or shall we take another look at all this by looking at machines not as separate from us, but extensions of what being human is?

There is no doubt that today’s concept of being a citizen will change completely once AI and the blockchain are deployed globally. The very essence of human existence will change, as it will not be, as until now, bound to what you do for a living. It is left for all stakeholders to ensure that the adoption of AI and the blockchain will lead to maximum benefits for citizens, and to ensure that the use of these technologies is not channelled into negative causes that will be bad for citizens of the world.