Solana's Promising AI Plays | Bankless

Despite its recent transaction traffic jams, Solana has generally proven to be a capable option for AI x Crypto narrative projects that need to handle many transactions quickly.

The fast and efficient request processing of Solana’s parallelized environment has attracted io.net, a decentralized network that provides global GPU resources for AI and machine learning purposes, to choose Solana as its home.

io.net’s launch and airdrop in April, with a $1B valuation and $30M raise, could serve as a major boon to AI projects on Solana. With this launch drawing near, let’s explore some of the other leading AI projects building and operating in the Solana ecosystem 👇

🍀 Nosana

The token that arguably kicked off Solana AI season, appreciating >24K% in the last year, Nosana is setting up a decentralized network tailored explicitly for AI inference (when you type a response to ChatGPT and it replies) workloads.

By creating a marketplace for GPU power, Nosana allows individuals and companies to contribute or access computational resources, facilitating more cost-effective and scalable AI model training and execution.

This project could be a game-changer for startups and researchers seeking affordable AI computing resources.

🌿 Grass

Grass is a decentralized network gathering users’ public web data to train AI models via a ZK Solana L2.

Yes, you read that right — a Solana L2. Users can participate in Grass by installing a browser extension, effectively turning their browsers into nodes. This setup allows the network to utilize additional internet bandwidth from users and gather data from public websites.

Grass is still in beta, but it has a points system that (hopefully) will reward users for contributing to the data collection.

🟣 Synesis One

Synesis One uses Solana to build a decentralized solution for training artificial intelligence models.

Synesis One allows anyone to earn cryptocurrency by completing small tasks like providing data for models, data labeling, and data annotation. This platform simplifies AI development involvement for people by providing a straightforward way to train data, thus democratizing participation in AI development through a transparent data training method. You can do this in a browser or through apps on iOS and the Google Play Store.

Synesis’s platform could speed up AI model training, increase transparency around data training, and support a fair, data-driven economy.

⚫️ Dither

While Dither does have a Telegram trading bot, do not discard it merely as one.

With larger ambitions, this esoterically marketed AI tool uses open-source historical data to create different tools for trading applications, in and out of crypto, like Dither’s SeerBot, an AI that analyzes tokens to identify potential upside. For example, it found BODEN at a $223K market cap and ALBEMARLE at a $176K market cap.

Additional upcoming applications include a semantic sniper that finds and evaluates soon-to-launch tokens based on qualitative features like token icon quality and metadata — perfect for a world where a good ticker can make or break a project — and a Fantasy Football Draft Player Analysis that will extend into bets for football season.

🌞 gmAI

Developed by the creator of the points-trading exchange Whales Market, gmAI is an advanced artificial intelligence platform designed to enhance the functionality and user experience of dApps on Solana.

Deemed as an operating layer of AI, gm will be capable of analyzing onchain data, identifying smart contract risks, prompting on-chain swaps, and yield farming automation without custody issues. While many of its functions may pertain to DeFi, gmAI intends to support many different use cases, like onchain gaming, DAO automation, SoFi, and more.

gmAI raised funds via a Twitter presale 👀 and plans to release its early access soon. It will offer an incentivized beta and additional rewards through its upcoming “soon-to-mint” gmID pass.

Conclusion

As io.net prepares for its launch, the spotlight on these pioneering AI projects reflects the potential of Solana’s parallelized environment to be a hub for artificial intelligence on the blockchain.

Grass, Nosana, Synesis One, Dither, and gmAI each have ambitious plans to enhance the capabilities of blockchains and AI, using one to complement the other and make it more approachable, equitable, or efficient.

Now comes the test to deliver on those ambitions!