Altered State Machine: Non-Fungible Intelligence is Here
Happy Sunday! Altered State Machine sits at the intersection of three megatrends in technology right now – Artificial Intelligence, NFTs, and web3/Metaverse. I’m stoked to share more.
The Profile Basics
Startup Name:
Altered State Machine
Industry:
Web3 - NFT / Artificial Intelligence
Floor Price:
1.3 ETH (~$5700)
Break It Down for Me
The Problem:
The average person lacks the knowledge or resources to access and leverage machine learning to improve their life. Even more so, the Metaverse is currently limited in its potential use cases for artificial intelligence in online experiences.
The Solution:
The democratization of artificial intelligence in a user-friendly set-up which leverages the composability and interoperability of NFTs on web3. In other words, Altered State Machine has created “Non-Fungible Intelligence”.
Core Users:
NFT and Metaverse participants, Machine Learning enthusiasts, Developers, and more
Walk Me Through It:
First and foremost - What is Altered State Machine?
From the definition: “Altered State Machine is a decentralised protocol for creating ownership of an AI agent via an NFT.” Let’s break down exactly what it means to own an AI Agent and how Altered State Machine facilitates the creation and training of them.
At the highest level, each owner will need a combination of NFTs to create an AI Agent:
A Brain NFT: This is the base NFT of every agent, specifically a collection of base value genes, and is usable across applications and Metaverse worlds. The Brain NFT hosts the DNA of the Agent and initially dictates how it’ll behave in environments. However, the Agent is not limited to a single world or expression. Instead, different worlds are mapped to different areas of an Agent’s Brain in order to express the best genes for the situation. The Brain can even be trained to improve behavior and/or performance of the Agent.
A Form NFT: The Form is the unique, visual representation of the Agent, specific to the environment. Typically this is 2D art or a 3D model.
Memories: Each one is a representation of the output of a trained machine learning model that informs the Agent’s behavior and strategy for an environment.
AI Agents are created by minting the needed NFTs through ASM, or purchasing second-hand through
OpenSea
(typically minted in packs for ease of use). Then the NFTs for Brains and Forms are combined to form an Agent.
Beyond the baseline Memories, they are improved at Gyms, where Agents train specifically for the world or application they will interact with. The training experience of the Agent most significantly influences its performance.
A more concrete example of how this all works together is Altered State Machine’s most recently launched play-to-earn game,
AIFA
(Artificial Intelligence Football Association). In AIFA, players collect Agents called All-Stars to create an AI soccer team, then pit them against each other in 4v4 soccer action.
Here is more information about the AIFA Genesis Collection for
All-Stars
(the Forms),
ASM Brains
, and
Mystery Boxes
(contains 1 Brain and 4 All-Stars).
Show Me the Money
Currently:
The primary revenue stream for the protocol is the mint and re-sales of its NFTs. To get involved with Altered State Machine, there are a few options:
The
Genesis Brain
for Altered State Machine
The
Genesis Box
for the Artificial Intelligence Football Association play-to-earn game
Additionally, ASM plans to publicly launch the $ASTO governance token to the community in the near future (there have been hints of an airdrop to NFT holders). The token is intended to decentralize the ownership of the protocol, as well as govern activity within the ASM ecosystem through a few more use cases:
Mint or mine the Brain NFT in third-party worlds
Train the ML model of an Agent at a “virtual gym”. At these gyms, users pay for training time via the ASTO token. A majority of the payment is retained by the Gym Host, and a small fee returns to the ASM DAO
Support the Ecosystem Development Fund which provides resources to expand ASM Agents to more applications, games, and worlds
Be Wary
Where to be wary for Altered State Machine:
This is a big bet. It’s still very early in the development cycle for Altered State Machine, and this is pretty evident given that their first major “proof-of-concept” event hasn’t happened yet. Once the project gains traction from the AIFA game, execution for partnerships across the NFT ecosystems will be the next area to watch closest.
My assumption that if all goes well, the last piece to keep top of mind is AI ethics. This project is one of the closest to not only replicating human intelligence, but also interaction. If this project reaches its potential, it’s fair to assume that ASM Agents will be indistinguishable from humans interacting in the Metaverse.
Now Get Excited
This might be my favorite project to date. This project is so exciting because it highlights the next iteration of web3 – the potential beyond DeFi and early Metaverse projects. The project sits at the intersection of some major emerging trends, like web3 and AI, acting as the thread which connects them by bringing “consciousness” to an asset in a user-friendly manner.
The use cases are limitless in the digital realm. The case for ASM’s success is only made stronger by the interoperability of web3. Being designed and built as an NFT makes this the perfect plug-and-play solution for AI models across worlds (interoperability), but also able to interact and improve NFTs a user might already own (composability). Imagine your favorite NFT, like
BAYC
, improved with an ASM Brain to hold meetings or give tours on your behalf in
Decentraland
.
On this idea, ASM can be leveraged for “digital twins” of athletes, celebrities, or yourself throughout the Metaverse. By leveraging memories of an individual, multiple Agent copies can be trained to recreate performances or comedy sets across different Metaverse worlds instead of being limited to one real-time show or venue.
Each individual asset is liquid and tradeable which makes it easier for a user to get started without necessarily needing to purchase each one at once. ASM Agents were intended for the every-day consumer to be able to use machine learning models – truly democratizing artificial intelligence with this ease of onboarding and use. Instead of needing a machine learning specialist to build and train models from scratch (or at least have some knowledge of the behind the scenes workings of machine learning), the training has been gamified with the virtual gyms. Now, AI Agents can compete with each other, interact, and support human actors.
From the team’s vision, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite lines: “However, the performance of an Agent is substantially influenced by its training and experience, which means even a “low spec" character has a chance of developing a winning strategy. It may take longer, or use unconventional strategies, but as in the real world anything is possible with effort, focus and luck!”
Finally, I’m excited about ASM’s potential for expansion by:
The product - Linking/Upgrade feature for NFTs on the ERC-721 standard to be composable; ASM Brain “summoning” or next generation creation process
The target user market - Horizontal expansion, embracing a multi-chain future, specifically focusing on partnering with NFT projects on low-fee networks (i.e. Solana, Harmony, etc)
Revenue generation - Staking the Brain NFT to create liquidity for the user through rewards, while simultaneously incentivizing DAO participation
And that’s a wrap!
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Thanks for reading and see you next Sunday.
- Nico
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