In the previous articles, Commonization of Assets in the Blockchain Era, I explained about shared assets, which is referred as asset commons in blockchain.

In this article, I‘m going to talk about artificial intelligence and blockchain from the perspective of ontology. It may be not easy to understand. But take your time and read on. You may get a kick out of it when you follow the latest technological trends and catch a glimpse of the future world.

First of all, there are two fields of AI that are getting the most attention and actively being researched.

One is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and the other one is the Smart Factory which is one of the hot topics in Industry 4.0.

RPA means a solution designed to automate repetitive, manual workloads through software robots. A great example is office automation which was popular in the 3rd industry which was led by the finance and telecommunication industries. Recently, the idea of office automation has been extended to our homes. One good example is Amazon’s artificial intelligence system Alexa. Alexa is a voice-activated speaker with AI technology. With your simple order, it makes a restaurant reservation, orders a product, and reserves a flight. Korean telecommunication companies and IT companies also have introduced various voice-activated speakers such as Nugu and Clova.

The second field is Smart Factory.

In a Smart Factory, AI applied in the manufacturing industry, the major 4th industry field. In a nut shell, it means factory automation. It‘s basically an unmanned factory where AI technology is applied and machines produce goods by themselves. A digital automation solution is incorporated in the entire process of production including designing, development, manufacturing, distribution, and logistics. It is an intelligent factory using Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the production process to improve productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction.

As a Smart Factory continues to advance, all the data available in the factory are collected and analyzed, then the results are applied back to the operations. At the center of it all lies AI. AI is responsible for controlling machines in real time so that they can produce the best output.

It feels like technology is progressing faster than ever. And technology is everything. So, I came to wonder what kind of benefits will we get out of an innovative evolution through AI?

For AI to work smartly, our society should be more automated and operated in a systematic way. AI is a technology focusing on helping other well-established underlying technologies to be appropriately applied and executed. When a factory is well automated, AI can realize its full smartness.

Then came another question, “Why do we have to execute them with AI?” I can find the answer to this question in blockchain.

As I repeatedly mentioned in my previous articles, blockchain is a tool for credit and distribution. If credit or financing came into being, somebody should take responsibility and execute it. The technology that will provide a direction to which we should follow and let us know the value of the credit or financing is in blockchain.

Blockchain is a decision making mechanism with a governance system. Blockchain can explain what should be executed and why as well as how much value it will have. That’s why blockchain can serve as a control tower when things are executed with certain goals and value in a real industry.

Also, ontology that combines Ontology Web Language (OWL) and Timed Automata Language (TAL) is important to find a connection point between the suggestion for a direction and the execution of AI and blockchain.

Ontology is like a computer language dictionary which contains words and relationships. For AI and blockchain to communicate, the blockchain structure should be designed in a language that can be understood by AI. And ontology is applied when the blockchain structure designed in an AI-language is executed. As a result, communications are enabled through blockchain via ontology technology, and AI will actually do the execution based on blockchain‘s decisions.

What will happen if this process moves forward seamlessly? Close your eyes for a second and imaging the world where AI is connected with blockchain.

In a world where AI meets blockchain, anybody can directly control, own or share an AI-applied production method through blockchain’s governance system. AI riding on blockchain technology will systematically distribute and execute tasks as people intended.

It may not be an easy story to digest for now. Still, I took the liberty to imagine how blockchain that is combined with AI can change the world from the ontology perspective. In the next article, I‘m going to talk about the blockchain industry’s hottest topics, an ICO and a reverse ICO./Yezune Choi BOSCoin CEO

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jms@decenter.kr