FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT IS PROJECT PAI?

Project PAI is developing an open-source, blockchain-based platform designed to allow everyone to create, manage, and use their own Personal Artificial Intelligence (PAI). The PAI Blockchain Protocol (PAI blockchain) enables a decentralized AI economy where application developers can create products and services that will be beneficial to the PAI ecosystem and users can contribute their PAI data to improve and enhance the platform’s AI neural network. In addition, companies and developers can easily create their own token on top of the PAI blockchain to facilitate interaction and transaction in their own unique experiences. The focal point of all interactions on the PAI blockchain are PAIs - intelligent 3D avatars that look, talk and behave just like their human counterparts, made from the digital profiles of the user’s online behavior.

WHAT IS PROJECT PAI’S VISION FOR THIS DECENTRALIZED ECONOMY?

Project PAI vision is two-fold.

Everyone in the world should have the ability to create and access their own PAI on the PAI blockchain. PAI’s are intelligent 3D avatars that embody ourselves in the digital space, enriched with our own voice, image, and behavior. They serve as our digital representative, able to learn new skills that supplement our own, and capable of performing a myriad of tasks independently and at our direction. Whether consumer, celebrity, artist, physician, politician - everyone should have ownership of their digital identity. Every PAI serves as the authenticated, realistic digital representative of their unique user.

Every person who creates a PAI on the PAI blockchain will own, use, manage, and control their own assets on the PAI blockchain. As participants on a decentralized system, all of the data gathered on the PAI blockchain belongs to the user, not some central organization. In addition, the PAI itself is also owned by the user. The user is free to control who is allowed to use their PAI and the associated data, receiving compensation for their participation on the PAI blockchain.

HOW DOES PROJECT PAI ENABLE ANYONE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DECENTRALIZED HUMANISTIC INFORMATION ECONOMY?

A decentralized humanistic information economy is one in which all individuals are compensated for the contributions they make on the platform. The amount and manner of compensation are determined by the supply-and-demand market in a transparent manner, free from the interference of any central authority.

Project PAI enables any user to get compensated for their participation on the PAI blockchain, which can include activities such as contributing their data or work, authenticating other people’s data and providing their computational resources toward improving the Personal AI algorithms. Users can also build, manage, and monetize their own PAI or utilize the PAI to work for them. Project PAI compensates participants on its platform with PAI Coin. Developers launching their applications on the PAI Blockchain can also accept compensation for their work using PAI Coin.

WHO IS INVOLVED IN PROJECT PAI?

Project PAI is working with several experienced blockchain engineers, architects and developers working on the project, and will soon be opening up its GitHub for public participation.

Alex Waters is the technical advisor to Project PAI and has been heavily involved in the blockchain technology ecosystem since 2010. He has held roles on the Bitcoin core development open source project and has founded several startups, including Coin.co, a payments company, Coin Apex, one of the very first digital currency and blockchain research organizations.

Chuck Ng serves as the president of the Project PAI Steering Committee. A noted investor and tech early adopter, he helps direct community feedback to actionable progress for the PAI ecosystem.

In addition, several individuals and enterprises are helping to bring Project PAI to fruition. Leading Personal AI company ObEN is one of several companies adopting Project PAI’s vision and contributing resources to the development of the PAI blockchain protocol. ObEN’s artificial intelligence technology can quickly create a PAI that looks, talks and behaves like its human counterpart. Its full-stack AI creates realistic, intelligent 3D avatars with technology that spans speech, computer vision, AI animation and natural language processing. All of ObEN’s R&D is conducted in house at its lab in Pasadena, CA. ObEN is backed by top investors including Tencent and Softbank Korea.

ObEN plans to utilize the PAI blockchain to further secure its avatars, utilizing the decentralized and distributed computing power offered by the blockchain to further improve the quality of its AI algorithms. In addition, ObEN will also participate on the Project PAI blockchain as a developer, creating a variety of experiences using its Personal AI technology.

WHAT IS PAI?

PAI is an acronym for Personal Artificial Intelligence. A PAI is a network-verified 3D AI avatar that looks like you, talks in your voice, behaves like you and serves as your representative in the digital world. Created using ObEN’s advanced AI technology, a user’s PAI becomes smarter with each interaction on the PAI blockchain. The blockchain-encrypted PAI also ensures security of user identity, with each PAI as unique as the user it is based on, and belonging to said user alone.

HOW DO YOU CREATE PAI?

Creating a PAI is very simple. A user takes a selfie with a smartphone and within a few seconds a PAI bearing their image is ready on their mobile device. The user then reads a few sentences of a provided script, and their PAI is able to speak in the user’s voice. This is the basic functional PAI that can then be registered and authenticated on the PAI blockchain.

HOW ARE PAI AUTHENTICATED?

The fundamental components needed to create a basic PAI, a person’s voice and image, are also what is used by authenticators to confirm identification. The chart below details the fundamental data that is collected and the authentication that follows - this authentication process is also described as Proof of You (PoY):

The authentication system will employ both CAPTCHA style consensus and cross validation systems in order to maintain the integrity of the PoY process. All authenticators will first need to complete their own Proof of You process in order to be eligible to perform authentications.

WHAT IS PROOF OF YOU (PoY)? WHY DO I NEED TO AUTHENTICATE MY PAI?

Proof of You (PoY) is the process by which the creation of each PAI is confirmed to be initiated and carried out by the person whom the PAI represents. In order to ensure a trustless peer-to-peer AI economy in which a user’s PAI is able to represent him/her in all types of use cases and interactions, it is important that every PAI is authenticated and attributed to its correct human counterpart. The PoY process will ensure that no PAI is created using another person’s identity, and that users maintain control and usage of their PAI. Only once authentication is completed can a PAI then be registered on the PAI blockchain. With trusted authentication and secure registration, Project PAI envisions PAI eventually acting as a KYC in the future.

WHO CAN BECOME AN AUTHENTICATOR AND HOW?

Anyone can become an authenticator, however, all potential authenticators must first complete their own Proof of You process and register on the PAI blockchain in order to qualify. Once this process is complete, the authenticator installs a certified app on his or her mobile phone (Android & iOS) that will allow them to start authenticating submissions by users across the world who wish to have their PAI authenticated and registered on the PAI blockchain as part of the PoY process. As an essential component of the Proof of You process, authenticators are compensated for their work with PAI Coin, may come from users as payment for the authentication service.

WHAT TYPE OF DATA IS USED TO BUILD A PAI?

The data used to create a basic PAI consists of biometric data including images, videos, and voice samples. As a PAI grows, data from sources including medical, financial, PAI interactions, IOT interactions, or loyalty programs may also be used to improve a user’s PAI.

All data is owned and controlled by the registered and authenticated owner of the PAI and used with permission. The user’s PAI can learn from this data and work for the benefit of the user. The user may also monetize the PAI and share as much or as little of said data as they deem appropriate. Those users who choose to share their data to improve the PAI blockchain and/or to improve the experiences offered by developers on the PAI blockchain will then be compensated for their contributions.

HOW DO I ACCESS MY PAI?

A person’s PAI can be accessed on a mobile device (Android & iOS) through any number of PAI-enabled applications on the PAI blockchain. These applications are created by developers who can use ObEN’s technology to deploy PAI on a number of services and experience. State-of-the-art security and 2-factor authentication are used to safeguard your PAI and its usage.

WHAT IF I LOSE THE DEVICE ON WHICH I HAVE MY PAI? CAN I SECURELY RETRIEVE THE PAI ON A NEW DEVICE?

The creation of a PAI involves the creation of a 12-word recovery phrase that allows the user to restore their PAI Coin and PAI securely, should they need to replace a lost or damaged device.

WHAT CAN USERS DO WITH THEIR PAI?

Project PAI envisions a user’s PAI as an extension of themselves operating in the digital space. The PAI can operate intelligently and independently, is not bound by time constraints or geographic location, and can develop skills that the user may not possess. Personal AI can serve a myriad of purposes, from acting as a personal assistant to manage schedules, make dining plans and shopping to acting as a virtual concierge that can guide the user during their travels. As more and more of our interactions move to the digital space, a PAI can learn and develop enhanced skills including communicating in different languages, thereby expanding the user’s capabilities in the digital space. In addition, with a Personal AI, many of the everyday tasks that take up our time can be relegated to the PAI, giving the user more time to enjoy their favorite activities or to spend with family and friends.

WHAT CAN DEVELOPERS DO WITH PAI TECHNOLOGY?

Because the PAI Blockchain Protocol will be open-sourced, anyone can develop PAI focused experiences on the PAI blockchain. Use cases include allowing users to interact with their doctor’s chatbot to maintain regular health updates and serve as a virtual resource for medical information, or celebrities creating PAI based experiences that allow them to interact with more fans around the world. On the PAI blockchain, users can also voluntarily share data with developers to help enhance and improve the PAI experience.

HOW WILL YOU DESIGN THE PAI BLOCKCHAIN PROTOCOL TO ENABLE ALL PEER-TO-PEER PERSONAL AI APPLICATIONS ON THE PAI BLOCKCHAIN?

The PAI blockchain is an open source protocol that exists as public infrastructure. An entirely new and independent protocol based on the Bitcoin blockchain protocol, its goal is to service many different types of AI products and services. Anyone can build applications on the PAI blockchain and benefit from the value they create for their users.

WHY DID PROJECT PAI CHOOSE TO BUILD ON THE BITCOIN PROTOCOL?

Building a new protocol derived from bitcoin allows customization of the protocol and blockchain for PAI-specific applications. To fulfill the goal of mass-market adoption, it is important for the protocol and blockchain to be optimized for mobile capability, which building on the Bitcoin protocol allows. Furthermore, the UTXO transaction model of the Bitcoin protocol is advantageous for business adoption.

HOW MANY PAI Coins WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR MINING EACH YEAR?

The maximum supply of PAI Coin will be 2.1 billion, in contrast to Bitcoin’s 21 million maximum. The initial circulating supply of PAI Coin will be 1.47 billion, with a starting block reward of 1500 PAI Coin to be halved every 210,000 blocks, or approximately every 4 years.

HOW DO MINERS OPERATE AND GET COMPENSATED?

PAI Coin is a Bitcoin derivative, and is currently compatible with the Bitcoin mining algorithms and follows nearly the same in terms of technical details. Miners verify the validity of transactions occurring on the blockchain using a Proof of Work (PoW) procedure. When a solution is found, miners receive PAI Coin as compensation. 30% of the 2.1 Billion maximum supply of PAI Coin will be allocated to miners.

CAN YOU GIVE US A ROADMAP FOR THE LAUNCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECT PAI’S TECHNOLOGY AND FEATURES?

HOW CAN MINERS MINE PAI Coin? WHAT SETUP IS NEEDED?

In order to mine PAI Coin, Miners must first install the open-source repository wallet, called PAI Coin-qt, and run said wallet as a Miner - an option already built into the software to ensure a simple and easy experience. For anyone familiar with Bitcoin mining, the mining experience will be very similar - any 2xSHA-256 compatible mining software or hardware can be used to mine PAI Coin. Anyone with enough computation power can start to download the wallet and mine PAI Coin.

HOW MUCH DATA IS REQUIRED TO RUN PAI APPLICATIONS? DOES IT REQUIRE A LOT OF STORAGE?

A basic PAI does not require much storage or data, but as a PAI develops and grows, it will start to take up more and more storage. Project PAI will be implementing a BitTorrent based protocol for decentralized data storage, which will be encrypted to protect a user’s PAI data and store it correctly.

WILL PAI BLOCKCHAIN STORE DATA IN EVERY NODE ACROSS ENTIRE PAI BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK, MAKINGTHE NETWORK EXTREMELY SLOW?

In the first series of releases, the data will be stored in trusted nodes that only make up a fraction of the overall PAI Blockchain network. These trusted nodes are servers owned and run by Project PAI or its licensees. Because of latency, data storage on the blockchain for use on-demand is another very challenging problem and one that Project PAI plans to address in the future, per the Project PAI development roadmap.

WHAT ABOUT DATA SECURITY?

The Project PAI data storage schema is focused on individual privacy, only accessing user data on their local storage device(s). All other related data is encrypted, stored, and transmitted via a BitTorrent based protocol for decentralization and redundancy, and encrypted with the associated user’s keys. That means none but the owner of a particular PAI can access this data.

WHY PUT AI ON THE BLOCKCHAIN? WHY DOES AI NEED DECENTRALIZATION?

Massive amounts of electricity and processing power are “wasted” by pure Bitcoin mining. With a Proof-of-Useful-Work system, AI algorithms can be trained and utilized with these previously wasted resources, creating Machine Learning models as a byproduct of calculations on the blockchain.

As for why AI needs democratization and decentralization, currently much of the data used in building AI models in controlled by a select few large organizations. This data is generally monetized for corporate gain rather than communal utility. By creating a decentralized platform, the data remains under the control of each individual user, who can then determine how and what data to share.

WILL I NEED PAI Coin TO CREATE OR IMPROVE MY PAI?

Project PAI strongly believes that everyone in the world should have their own PAI. Therefore creating your PAI is free, as is training and improving your PAI. In fact, interaction with your PAI not only trains your own PAI, but will improve the functionality of all the PAIs on the blockchain as well.

Like any blockchain, miners and authenticators who serve to authenticate PAIs and PAI transactions will be compensated with PAI Coin, so authenticating your PAI may require a small payment in PAI Coin.

Applications and services may be developed on the PAI blockchain that will utilize specific capabilities of your PAI to perform useful functions. Those applications and services may require payment via PAI Coin.

WILL PROJECT PAI MAINTAIN A COPY OF USERS’ PRIVATE KEYS OR MNEMONIC CODES?

Project PAI will not hold a copy of any user’s private keys or mnemonic codes.