Solana Announces the Integration of AI via ChatGPT
- Solana blockchain has become the first Layer 1 network to officially integrate AI with the help of a ChatGPT plugin.
- The plugin can be used to buy NFTs, transfer tokens, inspect transactions, and find NFT collections by floor price.
- An AI accelerator program for university students and a strategic grant program of $10 million were also announced.
- The goal of the grants program is to “explore new use cases of machine learning models interacting with Solana protocols.”
One of the largest and cheapest blockchains around the world, Solana (SOL), has seen a gradual decline in its popularity following the crypto market bear run and the collapse of its network multiple times in the past. However, the developers have been working to restore the blockchain’s former fame via the integration of artificial intelligence, or AI. According to an announcement, the blockchain claims to be the first Layer 1 network to officially integrate AI with the help of ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022.
According to a press statement published on May 23, the Solana Foundation, the non-profit organization responsible for the development and smooth functioning of the SOL blockchain, confirmed the integration of the blockchain with AI via a ChatGPT plugin, which was created by Solana Labs, a technology company that builds products, tools, and more related to the native blockchain of the SOL ecosystem.
“This integration from Solana Labs serves as a reference for how AI can make it easier to understand Solana data and protocols, or surface data about Solana’s computing infrastructure and DeFi projects. The plugin can be used to buy NFTs, transfer tokens, inspect transactions, interpret public account data, and find NFT collections by floor price,” said the announcement.
The Foundation has also announced an AI accelerator program for university students and a strategic grant program to accelerate the usage and integration of AI on the Solana blockchain. The plugin, created by Solana Labs, is the first for a Layer 1 blockchain and is available for download via GitHub.
As per April Twitter posts from the Foundation, the grant is valued at $1 million, with participants getting anywhere between $5k to $25k. Furthermore, both new and old AI projects were eligible. However, updates have been made to the grants program, and the funding has now been raised from $1 million to $10 million. Moreover, 50 applicants are already part of the grant program.
The grants are “intended to encourage the ecosystem to explore new use cases of machine learning models interacting with Solana protocols in safe and interpretable ways,” the Foundation added.
It is important to mention here that the blockchain’s fast throughput, near-zero costs, and ease of use will make the integration with AI very easy, as per the statement.
Talking about the same, Solana Labs’ CEO, Anatoly Yakovenko, stated that “every developer building consumer-oriented apps should be thinking about how their app is going to be interacted with through an AI model because this is a new paradigm for telling computers what to do.”
More importantly, the blockchain’s push into AI does not end here. The blockchain has also debuted a 3-month long accelerator program for university students that “has a full cohort dedicated to experimenting with blockchain and AI.”
As reported earlier by Bitnation, Yakovenko stated last year that the blockchain is close to solving a number of issues that could hinder its growth in the near future while adding that the future demands a blockchain system that would be lightning fast, secure, and scalable. Moreover, Google Cloud recently announced support for the Solana blockchain in BigQuery while adding that it is already running a SOL node.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
