Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum’s Role in the Future of AI
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has laid out an updated vision for how Ethereum could influence the future of artificial intelligence — not by competing in the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), but by providing decentralized infrastructure for privacy, coordination, and economic alignment.
Buterin argues that today’s push toward ever-more powerful AI systems tends to reward speed, scale, and centralization. In contrast, Ethereum’s value lies in enabling systems that prioritize openness, verifiability, and user control — qualities he believes will be increasingly important as AI becomes more deeply embedded in society.
Key elements of Buterin’s vision include:
Privacy-Preserving AI Interactions
Buterin points to approaches that allow people to use AI without surrendering sensitive data. These include running models locally on user devices, using cryptographic techniques to verify computations or payments without revealing information, and minimizing reliance on centralized AI providers.
Ethereum as an Economic Layer for AI
Rather than serving as a data or compute layer, Ethereum could function as a settlement and coordination layer for AI agents. In this model, autonomous systems could transact with one another, post collateral, build reputations, and participate in decentralized markets — all governed by transparent, programmable rules.
Decentralized Governance and Coordination
Buterin also sees potential for AI to assist decentralized governance on Ethereum, such as helping scale decision-making in prediction markets or supporting complex coordination problems. The emphasis, he notes, should remain on keeping humans in the loop while using AI to enhance, not replace, collective judgment.
Across these ideas, the underlying theme is using Ethereum to counterbalance the centralizing forces shaping today’s AI industry — offering an alternative path built around decentralization, privacy, and trust-minimized coordination rather than opaque, top-down control.