The Solana Foundation integrates ChatGPT and announces strategic grants and accelerator program focused on AI growth and development on Solana
The Solana Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana network, today announced the Solana blockchain has become the first Layer 1 blockchain to integrate artificial intelligence with a ChatGPT plugin developed by Solana Labs. In addition, the Solana Foundation has announced an AI accelerator program for university students and a strategic grant program to accelerate the usage and integration of AI on Solana.
The ChatGPT plugin integrated with Solana, the first for a Layer 1 blockchain, is currently available as a download from Github. This integration from Solana Labs serves as a reference for how AI can make it easier to understand Solana data and protocols, or surface data about Solana’s computing infrastructure and DeFi projects. The plugin can be used to buy NFTs, transfer tokens, inspect transactions, interpret public account data, and find NFT collections by floor price.
“Every developer building consumer-oriented apps should be thinking about how their app is going to be interacted with through an AI model because this is a new paradigm for telling computers what to do,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana co-founder and Solana Labs CEO (read more about AI from Anatoly here). “AI will make Solana more usable and understandable.”
The main characteristics of Solana – fast throughput, near zero costs and ease of use – allow AI models to interact seamlessly and efficiently on the network. While only in its early stages, Solana has become the center of a groundswell of AI activity happening in web3.
The Solana Foundation also announced today that it has increased the amount available in an AI-focused strategic grants program from the originally announced $1 million to up to $10 million. The grants program is intended to encourage the ecosystem to explore new use cases of machine learning models interacting with Solana protocols in safe and interpretable ways. The rolling grants program has already received 50 applications; new and existing projects can apply here.
The Solana Foundation also kicked-off a 3-month long accelerator program for university students that has a full cohort dedicated to experimenting with blockchain and AI. The program received hundreds of applications from projects and contributors, and the AI cohort has already resulted in an ask Solana U chatbot, which answers questions about Solana development and helps find the right Solana documentation, as well as Solana Audits AI, which is designed to enhance security for Solana-based programs.
The Solana ecosystem is also making major strides by leaning into AI and several projects are already utilizing AI technology:
- Hivemapper launched AI Trainers in mid-April to accelerate the ability of its AI to convert real world imagery into high quality digital maps with necessary details covering speed limits, warning signs, and other street-related information. Since then, contributors have initiated 5.7 million AI training reviews with 500,000 objects achieving consensus.
- Context built AI-powered chatbots focused on Solana and more than 30 Solana ecosystem projects.
- The MarginFi team introduced the Omni chatbot to answer questions about Solana and a range of Solana-based projects, including Meteora, Jupiter, Tensor, Mango Markets, Zeta, Kamino, Lido, Orca, and many more.
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