Web3 Can Be 'the Trust Layer' to Counter Issues Raised by AI

The Web3 ecosystem can help enable artificial intelligence's (AI) trust issue, Cathy Hackl, chief metaverse officer at innovation and design consultancy firm Journey, said during CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 conference here.

“We can all admit there's an issue with trust [in AI]. That is the massive opportunity for the Web3 community, being that trust layer,” Hackl said during a session on AI and metaverse trends on Thursday.

Read full coverage of Consensus 2023 here.

Hackl sees augmented reality (AR) glasses or similar wearables replacing the mobile phone in the post-smartphone future. "It’s going to be something I call the ‘Ray-Ban’ moment," she said, referring to the sunglasses.

"Let's say if we move from phones to glasses, then everything in my earshot becomes 'real estate,' and that's a pretty scary thought," she said. She added, "That's where I think that Web3 layer can help enable trust and know that I'm seeing something that is the right thing or the thing that belongs to someone specifically."

Read full coverage of Consensus 2023 here.

Speaking of strategies to push Web3 to the mainstream, Hackl said there need to be fewer restrictions in the space.

"You would buy, like, anything you would buy on e-commerce, like, the process is fiat," she said. "The actual act of minting is something that the person does when they acquire this and they get the physical one so they have to participate in it physically."

"Web 3 is a choice. You can either put it on the chain or you don't have to," she added.

Looking at the metaverse space, Hackl sees the status quo as a "metaverse cooldown where everyone's, like, skeptical" after going through a “metaverse hype” period last year. She said the industry is eyeing "long-term play."

"I know it's a little bit hard right now both on the web 3 side and the metaverse side, but keep building," she added. "The future, in my perspective, depends on all of us that are in the trenches."