Columnist Brian Merchant touched on this fuzzy connection between the two technologies this week, writing , “it really is remarkable, and remarkably telling, just how quickly and completely A.I. language and image generation wiped web3 out of the cultural consciousness.”
The simple reason why is that A.I. technology has a utility and is convenient and, while it has its own universe of issues and problems, it seems to actually work. Whereas the most user friendly crypto wallet I ever used, Metamask, was such a pain in the ass that I couldn’t imagine ever using it on a daily basis in any meaningful way.
But also hardcore crypto evangelists dreamed of creating a brand new internet run on a brand new financial system. And it turns out people don’t want that. In fact, the current A.I. explosion, to me, proves the opposite is true. They want more of our current internet. They want it to talk back and to do things for them.