The artificial intelligence sector has exploded and seems to show no signs of slowing down. However, most companies and projects utilize centralized services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud computing power, which can be costly and prone to outages.
Decentralization and blockchain are solutions to these issues, according to Theta Labs head of strategy Wes Levitt, who told The Agenda podcast that decentralized cloud computing saves customers money and offers greater reliability and flexibility.
Levitt spoke to hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond for episode 51 of The Agenda, where he broke down how decentralization helps democratize access to computing power, why academia has become Theta Labs’ top customer and more.
Decentralized cloud services expand access to AI
Theta Labs is the company behind Theta Network, which describes itself as a decentralized cloud for AI, media and entertainment. According to Levitt, Theta is focused on decentralizing the cloud in order “to get away from having only a few points of failure and from having near-monopolies in the case of the major cloud providers and what they can provide in pricing and other terms.”
Levitt shared that while Theta started out focused primarily on media and entertainment, it has seen a massive influx in AI-related customers since the current AI boom began. One particular sector that has found decentralized cloud computing especially useful is academia. “The strongest inroads we’ve made in the last six to 12 months has been in academia, actually,” he said.
“We caught on with KAIST, a university in Korea, and pretty quickly we were able to expand to four out of the five top Korean universities,” he explained, adding that Theta also “recently signed on University of Oregon and [is] talking now to a few of the US universities.”
“It’s not a model that really fits for them to say, ‘We’re going to sign a three-year contract with heavy commitments on it.’ They want to have flexibility and be able to use a lot when they want, and not pay for times when they’re not.”
Theta Labs vs. Amazon Web Services
The decentralized AI niche within the blockchain space has exploded over the past year. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the market capitalization of AI and big data crypto projects has grown from $16.17 billion in December 2023 to peak at over $70 billion on Dec. 6, 2024.
Market capitalization of AI and big data tokens. Source: CoinMarketCap
Given this massive growth, could AWS ever disappear and be replaced by a service like Theta Network? Well, according to Levitt, that’s not really the intention of the project and there will always be a role for centralization.
“We don’t have stickers on our laptops that say ‘decentralize everything,’” he told The Agenda. “I think there’s always going to be some use cases [for centralization].” He gave an example of a learning model that requires a cluster of nodes focused in a specific area rather than a global network.
However, Levitt does see a future where decentralized AI could one day rival its centralized counterparts, just perhaps with different use cases.
“AWS is not going to be killed off, or the centralized cloud players aren’t going to cease to exist. There’s going to be centralized use cases. Depending on how things evolve and how a taste for decentralized AI develops, it could be just as large.”
To hear more from Levitt’s conversation with The Agenda — including how Theta Network tackles multimedia streaming, whether politicians are capable of regulating AI and more — listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows!
