“We’re going to have more AI agents on Earth than humans,” says Gaia CEO Matt Wright

The world is on the brink of a monumental shift, as CEO and co-founder of Gaia, which is a decentralized AI infrastructure that empowers individuals and organizations to create, deploy, and monetize custom AI agents using their own data and expertise said, “We’re going to have more AI agents on Earth than humans.”

These virtual entities have progressed far from mere bots that traverse in predetermined scripts; they are now individual entities that can reason, assess context, and act upon tasks. They will not only assist humans; instead, they will become integral components to global workflows, transforming the very fabric of how business and economies operate.

Web3’s New Residents are AI

Where Web3 meets AI, a revolution is in the making. Blockchain technology-based platforms like Ethereum, DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs have languished for years in trying to get adopted, hampered by red tape inefficiencies and sluggish processes.

But now we see that AI can be the missing link.

Instead of waiting for human users to come into Web3, AI agents could become its most prominent residents. With crypto-native wallets and digital identities, these agents will never visit banks but dive into decentralized finance, carry out smart contracts, and engage with communities as they please. When billions of agents log in, Web3 could finally achieve the user base it so desperately craved.

Centralized vs Decentralized AI systems

Gaia, a decentralized AI network, is leading the way in a new paradigm for the development of AI that is compatible with this revolutionary shift. Unlike central-control-based AI models, Gaia AI encourages an evolving network of knowledge, where AI agents evolve, learn, and engage in decentralized systems. This new model guarantees that the AI agents transcend being mere passive tools, becoming active participants in digital economies, able to adapt to new data and execute sophisticated operations independently.

GaiaNet uses a decentralized edge-computing node network through which individuals and businesses can host extremely tailored AI models specific to their unique fields of operation.

Its approach is a major departure from AI innovation in the direction of community-driven AI development towards decentralized control. Every node in GaiaNet is a virtual copy of an actual expert, for example, a financial analyst, university teaching assistant, or customer care representative, and carries out skilled knowledge work independently.

With increasing AI, a fundamental challenge comes in deciding whether to focus on centralized or decentralized systems.

Centralized models such as Microsoft, WeChat, and OpenAI are fast, convenient, and efficient but introduce single points of failure undermining data ownership and transparency. Decentralized models such as Linux and Ethereum encourage resilience, innovation, and self-determination. Open-source AI models offer the choice of hosting and executing smart systems without corporate-controlled infrastructure, thus ensuring privacy and retaining control in the hands of the user.

Gaia AI exemplifies such decentralized architecture by enabling individuals and organizations to deploy autonomous AI agents that leverage long-term memory storage, tool-calling and agentic translation capabilities to enhance their abilities.

Data Sovereignty Gets an Upgrade

Perhaps the most important AI development is the emergence of open-source large language models. Businesses are now being empowered by platforms such as Hugging Face to harness the power of AI without forfeiting their data to third parties.

Companies can now have isolated AI models that are safe and not connected to consumer apps that are prone to siphoning user information.

Gaia AI takes this concept further with the use of vector-based knowledge storage, which enables AI agents to store and accumulate knowledge over time and therefore become better at decision-making and problem-solving.

With their own data, companies are now able to create proprietary AI systems that are specific to their needs. Gaia offers its customers domain-specific AI agents loaded with knowledge bases, which are designed to capture the industry learning, values, and operational requirements of each company. Gaia’s modular system enables companies to iterate AI models, introduce domain-specific data, and deploy scalable AI applications without being bound by proprietary platforms.

It also enables the deployment of self-hosted AI agents, where businesses can have full ownership of their data while leveraging AI for decision-making, automation, and customer experience. This is decentralized deployment, which offers better security, transparency, and flexibility, thereby making AI agents more cost-effective in finance, healthcare, governance, and other sectors.

With increasingly advanced AI agents, their role in economic systems may take on a depth never previously imagined. No longer mere tools, they may become independent digital laborers, facilitating financial deals, taking part in corporate decision-making, and influencing industries in general. The issue here is not so much how humans will govern these agents but if they will ultimately be establishing their own economies, systems of governance, and decision-making processes.

Building its own AI Workforce

During a recent Boss Code interview, Matt spoke affirmatively that the age of AI agents for all had finally come. He cited his favorite coding sites, Lovable and Curson, as the best examples of sites that enable users to create their own AI agents. These agents can be utilized to assist in developing applications or programming tools for clients.

He also mentioned how the company is involved in a project where they are building and on-chain registry where these agents have jobs, which they can share with each other.

Matt underscored the fact that “AI agents aren’t going to replace personhood,” but AI agents can enable the working process, where AI can facilitate the busy work while humans can live off of these. 

Keeping Rogue AIs in Check

With Gaia bringing AI agents within reach, there are threats of rogue agents. To counter this, the infrastructure needs to implement a system of “blacklists.” This would function similarly to crypto-rails, where malicious agent wallet addresses are blacklisted from big DeFi apps. Ultimately, it is up to human activity, the deciding factor for whether or not rogue agents are empowered.