On May 16, 2023, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (Creators of ChatGPT), among other industry leaders, testified in front of US Congress to discuss the growing concern over how to effectively regulate artificial intelligence.

During the testimony, Senators raised concerns about…

“Can we trust AI?”

“Will it help us or harm us?”

“How do we hold AI accountable?”

All these are profound questions that will significantly shape the present and future of our civilization.

However, we are only beginning to understand the consequences, and time is running out.

As AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, we must take proactive steps to uphold the integrity and governance of our system.

If not, our reality may unravel in ways we cannot yet fathom.

Fortunately, the company we are exploring today may offer a solution.

A Path to Global AI Governance

Recently, VERSES AI (Canada: VERS.NE) (USA: VRSSF), along with Dentons, the world’s largest multinational law firm, and the Spatial Web Foundation, produced a report titled, “THE ROAD TO AUTONOMY: A Path To Global AI Governance.”​

In it, they examine the ethical, legal, and social ramifications of AI development, deployment, and adoption.

The report addresses questions like…

“How can governments regulate AI systems that are on a path to regulating themselves?

“How can humans stay in the loop to ensure AI alignment with human values, principles, and laws, while guaranteeing fair and equitable services for all individuals and communities?”

“How do we encode and enforce AI laws directly in AI systems themselves?”

With artificial intelligence evolving at an unprecedented rate, VERSES proposed that governments and legislators develop a “globally unified, forward-thinking approach to AI governance.”

To do so, they offered a new solution for regulators to keep pace with these technologies by establishing a set of standards, known as “law as code.”

The objective of these standards is to “encode laws and legal principles into an understandable, machine-readable language” that self-regulating AI systems can comprehend and clearly communicate back to us so that we can sympathize with one another.

This aligns well with VERSES’ breakthrough research on explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) which offers new strategies for transparency and understanding of AI processing and decision-making.

Not only will these measures prevent harmful behavior, but they also ensure that we maintain control and protect human values regardless of how complex these systems become.

VERSES already succeeded in implementing these standards during the European Commission’s Flying Forward 2020 (FF2020) project.

The FF2020 project, led by VERSES, enabled autonomous AI-powered drones to execute various tasks, including medical supply delivery, building security inspection, and large crowd monitoring, all while adhering to local laws.

These demonstrations proved that standards could enable AI-powered services, like Urban Air Mobility to function at a city scale while meeting the legal and regulatory frameworks of multiple, unique states.

Now, VERSES, Dentons, and the Spatial Web Foundation hope to establish them at an international level so that artificial intelligence systems can improve society with humanity’s best interests in mind.

What are the Spatial Web Standards?

For autonomous AI systems to understand human beliefs and values, we required new standards and protocols that are better suited for modern technology (Web 3.0).

To overcome this hurdle, VERSES founders Gabriel Rene and Dan Mapes pioneered the Spatial Web Standards to allow AI and humans to operate on a set of universally standardized formats, languages, and protocol standards that would work simultaneously and across multiple platforms or environments in real-time.

This includes Spatial Domains, a “stateful” spatial index enabled by Distributed Ledger technologies, a Hyperspatial Language (HSML), and a Universal Spatial Protocol Standard (HSTP).

 Spatial Domains: are like web addresses for the three-dimensional world. Today, the majority of domains on the Internet operate in two dimensions. But as Web 3.0 technologies, like virtual reality and digital twins, go mainstream, we’ll require web domains that function similarly in the third dimension.

 “Stateful” Distributed Ledger-enabled Technologies: with everything existing in both the physical and digital worlds, we require a system that can search, discover, view, track, interact, transact, and transfer assets between locations and users, across both spaces. Distributed ledger technology ensures that we can trace, secure, and protect assets all while processing trillions of transactions at once.

 Hyperspatial Language (HSML): HTML and JavaScript were used in Web 1.0 to establish standardized methods for setting the interaction rules for content on web pages. HSML is the equivalent for Web 3.0, but it is a human and machine-readable language that normalizes and contextualizes diverse data. This allows us to communicate with and understand artificial intelligence before and after it makes decisions.

 Universal Spatial Protocol Standard (HSTP): HTTP is the Web 1.0 protocol for locating a web address. In Web 3.0, we require a protocol, like HSTP, that provides a sufficient technological foundation for Spatial Web technologies (ie. AR, VR, AI, IoT, and DLTs) and understands the contexts it operates in.

These new standards and protocols are meant to resolve the current limitations of Web 1.0 standards (HTML and HTTP) and will play a monumental role in developing a Web 3.0 civilization.

While a few years away, VERSES is already making meaningful contributions in this new era as demonstrated by its Flying Forward 2020 project.

But, rather than keeping this cutting-edge technology to themselves, Mr. Rene and Mr. Mapes have chosen to donate these standards to the IEEE, known for universally standardizing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the Spatial Web Foundation, for free.

In doing so, governments, businesses, and individuals all around the world will be able to create systems that maximize the potential of the Spatial Web, without jeopardizing the reality we have worked so hard to build over thousands of years.

You can learn more about VERSES’ rationale for creating the Spatial Web Standards in VERSES CEO Gabriel Rene and President Dan Mapes’ best-selling book, “The Spatial Web: How Web 3.0 Will Connect Humans, Machines, and AI to Transform the World”.

VERSES AI’s KOSM Operating System

While VERSES generously donated its Spatial Web Standards to the world, this does not mean that they are laying idle.

Instead, the Company is taking full advantage of this technology and its technical expertise by creating a next-generation operating system built on these standards.

KOSM OS is unlike any operating system you have ever seen before (ie. iOS, Android, etc.), offering users a foundational platform that simultaneously connects artificial intelligence, IoT, and humans with one another.

It enables developers to create applications that function in both the real and digital worlds while leveraging advanced AI tools like general intelligence agents, drones, and robots to learn, problem-solve, and carry out tasks autonomously.

A perfect example of this is VERSES’ WAYFINDER app which helps logistics companies improve operational efficiency in warehouse and distribution centers by over 35%, thus helping them save millions in the process.

It does so by creating a digital spatial twin of the warehouse, analyzing the environment, and determining the optimal strategy for organizing products, directing employees, and overcoming obstacles.

Better yet, VERSES has partnered with companies like SVT Robotics to deploy AI-powered robots that will improve and solve problems in real-time as they integrate with KOSM.

The irony of it all is that WAYFINDER was intended to be a proof-of-concept app demonstrating KOSM’s technical capabilities.

Instead, it proved so effective that they commercialized it and landed multiple multi-million dollar deals with some of the most notable and reputable logistics companies in the world (i.e. Blue Yonder, NRI Distribution).

WAYFINDER’s success provides consistent revenues for the Company and is just one example of what VERSES is creating on KOSM.

Ultimately, they aim to offer the platform to third-party businesses and developers so that they too can create cutting-edge Web 3.0 applications.

This is bound to spark a new age of innovation that combines the unlimited potential of AI and IoT while benefiting from the unique creativity and reasoning of the human mind.

The crazy thing is that KOSM may not even be VERSES’ most impressive achievement to date.

VERSES AI & Artificial General Intelligence

Generative AI is captivating the world with the introduction of Large Language Models (LLMs) like Chat-GPT, Bard, and LLAMA.

But what you may not know is that these systems have two major constraints limiting their capabilities.

While LLMs can create content based on patterns from their training data, they cannot comprehend or incorporate new information outside of their data set.

This sometimes produces inaccurate, biased, and potentially harmful responses, which is a huge reason why there is a global push to regulate AI.

If we are to reach the holy grail of AI, artificial general intelligence, then we must pursue a new approach that allows AI to learn from past experiences and recall its memory whenever necessary.

As CEO Gabriel Rene put it in our interview…

“The real world doesn’t operate by using big data to extract, understand and apply patterns–whatever your best decision in the past was, may not necessarily be the right decision in a new situation.”

Instead, we must develop AI that “learns from the data you give it and tests it out in the world so that it can improve and explain its process back to us,” similar to how the human brain works.

This is how VERSES differentiates itself from every other AI company in the market today.

Rather than mimicking data like LLMs, VERSES’ artificial intelligence learns from, understands, and contextualizes data so that it can behave and adapt to whatever context it operates in (i.e. autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots).

To do so, VERSES uses a “neuromorphic” approach to its AI research and software development based on neuroscience research known as Active Inference.

It was pioneered by VERSES’ Chief Scientist Dr. Karl Friston and enables the Company’s AI to simulate the brain’s processes for learning and problem-solving.

Not only does this mean more intelligent and versatile AI, but it also provides greater scalability making VERSES’ general intelligence agents theoretically suitable for any industry or task.

As of right now, the Company has filed a patent application for its next-gen AI technical breakthrough and plans to demonstrate its capabilities later this year in KOSM’s upcoming version, as well as through GIA, VERSES’ personal general intelligent agent.

Without a doubt, VERSES’ AI technology will have a profound impact on our world.

Final Word

Throughout this article, we have demonstrated how VERSES AI (Canada: VERS.NE) (USA: VRSSF) is setting the standard for artificial intelligence innovation.

By establishing the Spatial Web Standards, developed by VERSES’ founders, and working with artificial general intelligence that understands our values, no longer will we have to worry about AI going full-Terminator on us and destroying the human race.

Instead, we can focus on improving our civilization by peacefully co-existing alongside the most powerful tool humanity will ever create.

And with it, a new golden era of innovation and development, unlike anything we have seen before.

The next industrial revolution isn’t one, ten, or one hundred years away.

It is happening right now and VERSES AI is at the forefront of it.

To learn more about VERSES AI (Canada: VERS.NE) (USA: VRSSF), check out its investor presentation below.

VERSES AI (Canada: VERS.NE) (USA: VRSSF)

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