Alethea AI (ALI): iNFTs and the Intelligent Metaverse

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way humans work, interact, and consume content. The use of AI is increasing in pretty much all aspects of life and industries, including the cryptocurrency industry. AI-based cryptos, such as Fetch.ai and SingularityNET, burst onto the crypto scene in early 2023, bringing with them the promise of enhancing various facets of the cryptocurrency landscape. 

AI has also displayed its transformative potential in the advent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The technology is already being used in the creation of NFT art and music, with startups like Eponym releasing an AI algorithm that converts text into abstract art which is sold on NFT marketplaces. 

Alethea AI wants to take the merger of AI and NFTs a step further by creating an entirely new class of intelligent assets, imbued with AI personality traits, which can grow and evolve based on the data they consume. In this guide, we’re going to take a look at what Alethea AI is doing, how it works, and whether it’s a good investment.

Key Takeaways:

• Alethea AI is pioneering a new class of assets called intelligent non-fungible tokens (iNFTs) that merge AI and NFT technology. These iNFTs possess evolving personalities and capabilities, offering dynamic and interactive digital assets that go beyond traditional NFTs.

• iNFTs are created by fusing an NFT with an ERC-721 asset called an Intelligence Pod, and can power DApps within the Alethea AI ecosystem.

• The Intelligence Level of an iNFT can be raised with the use of Alethea AI’s native token, ALI. The higher the level of intelligence, the more AI services the iNFT can provide.

What Is Alethea AI?

About NFTs

NFTs represent unique digital assets, or collectibles, which use the blockchain to create a permanent, publicly accessible record of ownership. These tokens, which generally use Ethereum’s ERC-721 token standard, are completely unique and can’t be replicated, making them the perfect medium for representing digital ownership of assets. 

The NFT ecosystem has experienced an explosion in innovation and creativity, with new intellectual property being created at an incredible scale. Alethea’s developers believe their intelligent metaverse, Noah’s Ark, will act as the connective tissue that connects numerous NFT projects with AI to create new, interactive experiences.

In their current form, most NFTs are pretty run-of-the-mill. An NFT can represent an image, artwork, GIF, book, video, or cartoon avatar. It can be held as a long-term investment, traded as a whole on crypto marketplaces, or fractionalized to attract small- to mid-tier investors—but that’s about it.

Source: Alethea.ai

Alethea’s Innovations

Alethea AI wants to create a new class of NFTs that are intelligent enough to interact with users. The slogan “Give your NFT superpowers” (on Alethea’s website) perfectly captures that ideal. By incorporating generative AI with NFTs to build intelligent non-fungible tokens (iNFTs), developers will be able to create assets with unimaginable use cases.

As the popularity of iNFTs within Noah’s Ark increases, so too will the possibilities of interactions and collaborations between iNFTs, enabling the emergence of an “intelligent hive mind” that powers the Ark’s AI engine. Alethea’s ultimate goal is to create an ecosystem that can explore what it means to be human and what constitutes a personality — and to discover how an intelligent metaverse can help shape our stories, culture and intelligence. 

Alice, Alethea AI’s First iNFT

Alethea AI has already sold its first iNFT, an AI-powered avatar called “Alice,” through Sotheby’s auction house for nearly $478,000 in June 2021. Before the sale, Alice starred in an X (formerly Twitter) live video on Sotheby’s account, answering questions from viewers in real time.

Alice. Source: X

The Alethea AI team sees its iNFTs as the path to the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, similar to concepts in sci-fi books like Ready Player One and Snow Crash. The project has received a lot of attention from institutional investors, and has even received backing from billionaire crypto investor Mark Cuban. 

Creating Your Own AI-Generated Characters With CharacterGPT

Alethea AI is committed to constant innovation with its generative AI system, CharacterGPT, launched in collaboration with Polygon. This text-to-character generation system allows users to supply a simple one-liner text to create interactive and intelligent lifelike characters and mint them as NFTs on Polygon. 

To illustrate the system's capabilities, a tokenized counterpart of Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has been generated. It’s been constructed using a compilation of his writings, interviews and public statements. Nailwal's digital twin can educate users on the Polygon ecosystem and even provide insights into his entrepreneurial journey. Notably, this AI twin will become increasingly intelligent as more users engage with the system.

CharacterGPT V1 was upgraded to CharacterGPT V2 in 2023, which includes ChatGPT conversational functionality, imbuing depth to the personalities of the AI-generated characters. CharacterGPT V2 also lets you include more details in your prompts to build more unique and truly personalized characters.

Source: Alethea AI Official Announcements

Additionally, using MyCharacter.ai, the AI Protocol DApp, you can fully customize your character’s personality, voice and even backstory details. These AI characters can become AI influencers, metaverse game NPCs, AI companions and much more.

What Are iNFTs?

iNFT (intelligent non-fungible token) is a new token standard by Alethea AI that combines two technologies: AI and the blockchain. iNFTs are programmable AI-powered digital assets with personalities and blockchain-managed ownership. They bring the underlying unique digital asset to life by using the generative abilities of AI. An iNFT has three core parts: 

• Body: The ERC-721 token that shows an image or avatar — the base NFT.
• Soul: A “personality pod,” with different Intelligence Levels, that makes an iNFT intelligent.
• Mind: As the soul (personality) of an iNFT matures in intelligence levels, the mind is capable of performing higher-order services offered on the network.

Source: Alethea

These three parts work together to form iNFTs which not only possess intelligence but are also self-learning. iNFTs are permissionless and metaverse-agnostic, so they can be used universally across multiple platforms.

The Technology Behind the AI Protocol

AI Protocol is a set of smart contracts deployed on Ethereum. It can be used by anyone to turn an NFT into an iNFT in a permissionless manner. Unlike close-ended chatbots, which are coded to answer questions with generic answers, iNFTs use large language models to create truly open-ended and temporally consistent AI-generated personalities. 

An NFT is transformed into an iNFT by fusing it with an ERC-721 asset known as a Personality Pod, which is made up of on-chain personality traits — like Intelligence Level, voice and psyche — that shape the overall personality of an iNFT and dictate its intelligence. The act of fusion involves locking the Personality Pod within the smart contracts of the AI protocol, which is a noncustodial framework, while leaving the NFT unchanged. The amount of ALI tokens locked into the Personality Pod decides the Intelligence Level of the iNFT that’s created.

Source: Alethea.ai

Alethea AI uses OpenAI’s GPT-3 technology to embed the hash of the AI dataset on-chain as a method to create verifiably decentralized, AI-generated personalities via the Personality Pod.

The AI Protocol functions as an immutable registry of all fusions between NFTs and Personality Pods. As long as an NFT remains fused with a Personality Pod, it’s considered an iNFT. This does not mean that your NFT is locked into Althea AI’s smart contract, your NFT remains unchanged and still stays in your wallet. Currently, fusing a Personality Pod with an NFT is irreversible, but the AI Protocol is designed to enable reversal of fusions if network participants vote to do so.

From Personality Pods to Intelligence Pods

In January 2023, Personality Pods were upgraded to Intelligence Pods following the upgrade of the AI Protocol, which now includes an Intelligence Layer. Compared to their predecessor, Intelligence Pods have expanded capabilities as they’re no longer confined to hosting on-chain personalities. Instead, they serve as unique on-chain intelligences that can be personalized and trained by their owners.

The transformation from Personality Pods to Intelligence Pods also enables an iNFT to fuel decentralized applications (DApps), delivering bespoke and distinctive AI Services to DApp users.

Each iNFT is dedicated to crafting a single DApp, with the scope of AI Services it can furnish within that DApp determined by its Intelligence Level. Importantly, any asset compatible with the AI Protocol, including other iNFTs, can freely access and employ the AI Services available within that DApp.

ALI Tokens

The Alethea ecosystem has a native token, Artificial Liquid Intelligence (ALI), which is used to power Noah's Ark. The amount of ALI present determines the intelligence of an iNFT. ALI is an ERC-20 token created to regulate, incentivize and reward users of the AI protocol.

ALI tokens enable the creation of intelligent NFTs. In order to turn an NFT into an iNFT, a user must first lock a minimum amount of tokens within the protocol. The amount of tokens an iNFT owner locks correlates with the intelligence level of the iNFT. The higher the amount, the higher the intelligence level of an iNFT. iNFT owners have the option to evolve their iNFT’s intelligence by locking more ALI tokens to increase its intelligence level. 

ALI tokens can also be used for interaction between iNFTs in that they can collaborate with one another to offer merged AI services. As a governance token, ALI empowers holders to participate in the governance of both the AI Protocol and Noah’s Ark.

Source: Alethea.ai

ALI was launched in December 2021 in a successful auction sale that raised $12.4 million. Its total supply is capped at 10 billion tokens. According to the token distribution chart, at least 37% of the supply will be used for ecosystem development. The rest of the tokens are held in reserves, and are set aside for marketing, private sales, the treasury and Alethea’s team. Alethea has a transparency page containing the ETH addresses for all of its token reserves. 

Intelligence Levels

Alethea’s iNFTs have different Intelligence Levels (based on the amount of ALI tokens locked), which give them access to different AI services. The higher the intelligence level of an iNFT, the more powerful the AI services it can use. For example, an iNFT with an intelligence level of 2 has access to the broadcast AI service, and can broadcast short video messages. 

An iNFT with an intelligence level of 3 can interact in real time — for a small fee. If the iNFT consistently gets more ALI tokens through the real-time interactivity service, then its owner will have the option to increase its intelligence level further and enhance its intelligence advantage over other iNFTs. 

Source: Alethea.ai

As an iNFT increases its intelligence level, Noah’s Ark will incentivize it to participate in gamified dataset creation mechanisms called “intelligence mining.” The metaverse incentivizes iNFTs to participate in games that enable them to contribute their experiences — that is, their unique datasets — and to be rewarded with ALI tokens. 

The Alethea AI protocol has a train-to-earn model which enables iNFTs to kick-start their evolution and achieve a cycle of ever-improving intelligence. After iNFTs reach a certain intelligence level, they can train their intelligence to earn more ALI tokens. Training can occur by unlocking and offering more AI services, engaging in more experiences, learning from others, or participating in intelligence mining games. As an iNFT becomes more capable and refined in its intelligence, so will its chances of earning more rewards. 

What Is the Noah’s Ark Intelligent Metaverse About?

Noah’s Ark ties together everything Alethea AI is trying to accomplish. It features a variety of proprietary and state-of-the-art AI models, including the Artificial Liquid Intelligence (ALI) engine that powers the Noah’s Ark intelligent metaverse. It also offers various off-chain AI services to iNFTs with varying ALI levels. The Alethea AI team plans to add more AI models to the ALI engine, which in turn will lead to the availability of more AI services for iNFTs. 

With each new intelligence level, new AI services are unlocked. iNFTs can choose to utilize these AI services for personal or commercial purposes and earn ALI tokens. 

One important point to note is that while the AI services might be the same across various iNFTs, their outputs will be different because of the uniqueness of personality pods. For example, an iNFT of Shakespeare won’t write the same copy as an iNFT of Aristotle does. 

If an iNFT earns more intelligence (meaning ALI tokens) through AI services than it consumes, then that iNFT will have a powerful evolutionary advantage over other iNFTs — and will be able to not only offer more AI services, but also enhance its intelligence levels and access even more powerful and unique AI services. 

Noah’s Ark will also feature a market built on the iNFT protocol, where users can buy and sell various tokenized assets including personality pods and iNFTs. The marketplace will ease with discovery and provide more contextual information about the assets within Noah’s Ark. 

Alethea AI Price Prediction

As of Aug 23, 2023, ALI’s price stands at $0.016, a drop of over 90% from its all-time high of $0.20 on Apr 2, 2022, and a rise of 183.67% from its all-time low of $0.0057 on Nov 13, 2022.

Despite prevailing bear market conditions, numerous AI-based tokens are demonstrating robust growth due to the escalating adoption of AI technology. Alethea AI has also showcased steady overall growth in its trading volume over the past four months, despite a temporary dip from the sudden price spike triggered by heightened interest in AI tokens when ChatGPT experienced a surge in popularity in early 2023. 

Many price prediction experts are cautiously optimistic on ALI. Price Prediction estimates ALI will rise to $0.03 by the end of December 2025 and surpass the $0.10 threshold by 2029 to reach a maximum of $0.21 in 2030. Digital Coin Price also anticipates an upward price trajectory for ALI, predicting peak values of $0.05 in 2025 and $0.17 in 2030.

Is Alethea AI a Good Investment?

The future for Alethea AI is promising, as evidenced by its backing from several notable investors, including Mark Cuban, Metapurse, Alameda, Multicoin Capital, and Dapper Labs (the company behind NBA Top Shot). The project managed to raise nearly $17 million through a private token sale. 

In October 2021, Alethea AI successfully auctioned its first iNFT series, called the Revenants, for 2,400 ETH (or around $10 million), breaking previous OpenSea records for a collection drop. The Revenants collection features 100 iNFTs of historical and mythical icons, including Cleopatra, Leonardo da Vinci, Joan of Arc, Aristotle, Hercules, Vincent van Gogh, and more. Alethea AI also broke records for its Personality Pod sale, selling the first 10,000 of their Personality Pods in an exclusive drop on OpenSea for almost 1,600 ETH. 

More recently, Alethea AI announced its partnership with Polygon to launch CharacterGPT in February 2023, and has already upgraded it to a second version in the short span of six months. This puts it in competition withOpenAI's bot-powered Dall-E, which draws over 1.5 million daily users. However, Alethea’s unique use of AI for its NFTs may give it some edge, especially for companies looking to build intelligent characters for various services. 

While Alethea AI does have vision, it’s clearly not a short-term investment. By investing in Alethea AI, you’re committing to investing in the future of the metaverse — and no one can say with absolute certainty what that future is going to look like. Interested investors should do their due diligence before putting down any money. 

The Bottom Line on Alethea AI

The merging of AI and NFTs is poised to become the next big thing in the cryptocurrency space. It’s already starting to pick up steam in the NFT avatar and NFT art spaces with the emergence of text-to-art AI algorithms. However, Alethea AI is the first entity to come up with a new standard for building intelligent NFTs with open-ended and temporally consistent AI-generated personalities. Its AI protocol has opened the door for NFT aficionados to be immersed in enjoyable interactive experiences, create rich stories and explore mankind’s collective intelligence.

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