Marcello Mari, founder of SingularityDAO, took to the stage at AIBC Eurasia to discuss how AI is transforming possibilities into reality. His keynote focused on the rise of decentralized AI agents and their integration with blockchain technology.
The conference is taking place this week at the Festival Arena in Festival City Dubai as part of the AIBC Eurasia event.
Mari began by giving a historical overview of decentralized AI, a movement he has been involved in since 2017. As a founding member of SingularityNET, he contributed to pioneering the fusion of AI and blockchain, creating a framework where AI agents could conduct transactions autonomously. Despite early technological hurdles, the industry has evolved significantly. In 2021, Ocean Protocol, Fetch.ai, and SingularityNET merged to form Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), a conglomerate now valued at approximately $3 billion.
A pivotal shift occurred in December 2024 with the emergence of Web4 – an evolution of Web3 that integrates conversational AI agents with blockchain. Mari shared a fascinating anecdote about the Terminal of Truth, an AI agent that autonomously engaged with Marc Andreessen and convinced him to donate $50,000 to its wallet, sparking the creation of meme coins that reached billions in valuation.
The decentralized AI market, currently valued at $7 billion with 331 projects, has seen rapid growth. Companies like Virtual Protocols, ElizaOS, and Griffin AI are driving innovation, enabling AI agents to trade assets and autonomously conduct transactions on blockchain networks.
Despite the hype, challenges remain. The market has recently declined by 50%, infrastructure is still developing, and many AI agents lack real utility. However, Mari remains optimistic, emphasizing that blockchain adoption is increasing, AI models are improving, and major tech players will eventually enter the decentralized AI space.
He envisions a future where AI agents will dominate industries, facilitating transactions and data exchanges autonomously. Mari concluded with a compelling argument: for AI to benefit humanity, it must be built on privacy-preserving blockchain solutions. The future, he asserted, is decentralized AI.
