HWM Singapore – June 2019

data sets to train its AI on, which
means that it’ll also have more
trouble attracting customers. On top
of that, it’s very expensive to store
all the data you need to train the
AI, especially after factoring in the
costs needed to protect that data.
And even then, Facebook has already
suffered some high-pro le leaks.

Ultimately,wewant to provide

peoplewithmorechoice while

allowingthemtokeep the data

setswiththem.Companies like

GoogleandFacebook have so much

customerdataontheir hands right

now,andwewantto change that.

Wheredoesblockchain

technologyfactorinto this vision?

Mostpeopleassociate blockchain

withcryptocurrency. But at its core,

blockchainis reallyabout having

therighttostoreyour own data

andbeingabletoprove that the

datais yours.Today,you store all

yourprivatedataonGoogle’s or

Facebook’sservers,which means

speaker in your living

room, someone could be privy

to your entire conversation.

However, blockchain lets you

keep the data on the client side,

instead of sending it to someone’s

database. Your data remains on

your device and is not shared

with a third party. That’s

partly why companies like

Samsung have been trying to

implement blockchain technology

on their mobile phones.

With respect to AI, blockchain

could be used to facilitate so-called

data transactions. Your data is

stored with you and encrypted

with a private key, but if someone

wants your data, they pay you

with that cryptocurrency.

Right now, companies are

effectively using people’s private

data for free, and they’re using this

to sell more products. I think that’s

wrong, and blockchain could be a

possible solution. Data should be

stored locally with the client, and

people should be paid for sharing

their data.

Connectome is also working on

Virtual Human Agents (VHAs).

How are these different from

voice assistants like Google

Assistant and Amazon Alexa?

One big difference is the ability of

a Virtual Human Agent to provide

visual feedback, such as facial

expressions. Smart speakers are

basically just disembodied voices

right now. When you use a smart

speaker, it’s dif cult to care about

the AI on it and even think about

treating it nicely or like a friend.

They are not capable of displaying

any emotion, so it won’t get mad

that it can potentially be seen by

employees at these companies. Take

Amazon’s Alexa smart speakers

for example. An employee could

just copy a conversation, without

encryption, to another worker

and ask how to improve Alexa’s

response based on what was said. In

other words, when you put a smart

we want to

provide people

with more

choice while

allowing them

to keep the data

sets with them.

How is Connectome looking
to change AI and the data
sharing paradigm today?
At the moment, AI is heavily
dependent on data, such that
whoever has more data is going to
have a more precise and capable
model. Facebook and Google and
Amazon provide free services that
keep people coming back. But at the
end of the day, the data they collect
is used for marketing reasons in
order to drive sales. And of course,
there’s nothing wrong with this.
Unfortunately, one problem with
this approach is that a startup that
doesn’t have the same resources as
these companies will not have any

JUNE 2019 | HWM 35