Solana Becomes First Layer 1 to Integrate AI With ChatGPT Plugin

On May 23rd, the Solana Foundation announced it had integrated artificial intelligence using a specialized ChatGPT plugin. The Foundation also introduced an AI-focused accelerator program for university students.

Solana Launches Accelerator to Boost Blockchain and AI Research and Integrates Artificial Intelligence

This Tuesday, the Solana Foundation unveiled its new three-month AI accelerator program for university students. The program is aimed at furthering experiments centered on AI and blockchain technology. It accompanies the integration of artificial intelligence with the Solana blockchain.

Solana co-founder and Solana Labs CEO, Anatoly Yakovenko stated that all developers interested in building apps geared toward consumers should focus on the ways their programs will interact with artificial intelligence. He also expressed his belief that the integration will make Solana more understandable, and, ultimately, more useable.

Finally, the Solana Foundation also revealed that it had increased its AI-focused grant program to $10 million from the initially-announced $1 million. The program is aimed at encouraging “the ecosystem to explore new use cases of machine learning models interacting with Solana protocols”.

Crypto Industry Embraces AI

Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, generative AI has taken the world by storm. In fact, in 2023 there has been a noticeable shift of venture capital funding away from digital assets projects over to artificial intelligence.

The cryptocurrency community and industry have, however, readily accepted the new technology with some prominent figures like Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong even pushing back against Elon Musk’s demand to pause AI development.

Additionally, while Solana is the first layer 1 blockchain to have integrated artificial intelligence, it isn’t the first digital assets company to have embraced the technology. In late April, Binance Academy itself launched a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist