Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Proposes AI-Enhanced Governance Model

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a governance model that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) while ensuring human oversight.

Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new governance model that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance decision-making while ensuring human oversight.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Buterin discussed how AI can be effectively utilized in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to augment human judgment without concentrating power in a single AI system.

Instead of allowing AI to dictate governance, Buterin suggests using it as an “engine” while humans act as the “steering wheel.” He envisions a system where AI processes large-scale data and makes predictions, which are then checked and adjusted by human referees.

This approach aims to balance efficiency and decentralization, preventing any single entity from exerting undue influence.

One governance model Buterin highlighted is futarchy, a concept introduced by economist Robin Hanson. Futarchy relies on prediction markets to determine which policies best achieve predefined goals.

As Buterin explained, participants in these markets bet on the outcomes of specific proposals, and the market selects the option with the highest expected success rate.

Buterin noted that AI could be employed to enhance this system by analyzing relevant data and making predictions, which would then be verified by humans.

“We might have an AI system that follows a large-relevant-data-source and keeps track of a large number of useful statistics, and is able to make predictions about the success or failure of proposals, which human referees would then check and adjust,” Buterin explained.

Another model Buterin touched upon is "distilled human judgment," which involves an AI answering a large number of questions while human judges validate a small subset of the answers to ensure they align with human standards.

This system could be used in various applications, such as assessing contributions in collaborative projects or moderating content on platforms like X to identify and remove spam.

Buterin also introduced the concept of "deep funding," a mechanism that allocates resources based on contribution graphs, tracking dependencies between projects to distribute funds accordingly.

For instance, if a project receives 10,000 in funding, a portion, like 10%, would automatically flow to its upstream contributors over time, in turn, also receiving a percentage of their respective funders, and so forth.

This approach, Buterin said, could serve as an alternative to traditional token issuance models, potentially rewarding contributors more fairly over time.

"It seems plausible that, over time, this system could be used to coordinate the efforts of entire socioeconomic classes in a single, massively parallel, massively modularized, good-aligned computational process to create a final product of incredible value," Buterin said.

As Buterin pointed out, human oversight would be crucial in all these scenarios to ensure that the AI systems are used ethically and effectively and that their actions are aligned with human values.

Buterin has been a vocal advocate for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and has written extensively about their potential to revolutionize economic and social systems.

Earlier this week, Buterin warned of vulnerabilities in DAOs with governance models that allow vote "renting." Citing Futarchy, he noted a bribea