'Samsung pick' ZeroG Labs "AI is a public good... will prevent the black-box phenomenon" [Coin Interview]

Interview with Michael Heinrich, founder of ZeroG Labs

AI-specialized layer-1 blockchain

Decentralizing AI with blockchain technology

Recruited Conflux co-founder and others

Large investments from OKX, Samsung Next, etc.

"Aiming for a killer app with a personal GPT"

"Artificial intelligence (AI) is the core infrastructure that will lead the future. Users need to know how AI works. We aim to solve this problem with blockchain."

Michael Heinrich, founder of ZeroG Labs (0G Labs), said this in a recent interview with BloomingBit.

Heinrich is a finance and tech professional who worked at global investment bank JPMorgan and hedge fund Bridgewater, and later created the wellness unicorn Garten (a startup with a valuation over US$1 billion). He then entered the crypto industry after seeing opportunities in AI and blockchain.

We asked Heinrich about the AI infrastructure ZeroG Labs aims to implement and its future vision.

"Black box, a fundamental risk of the AI era"

ZeroG (0G) is a layer-1 blockchain dedicated to AI development that launched in 2023. What ZeroG Labs pursues is "an era in which everyone uses AI."

Heinrich pointed to the "black box" as the biggest obstacle. A black box is a system where users can only see inputs and outputs when using AI and cannot know what calculations and judgments led to the answers. He said, "If internal structures are not verifiable in an era where AI runs social systems, situations will repeat in which one cannot even explain 'why this decision was made'," and added, "The black box is the most fundamental risk of the AI era."

ZeroG focused on decentralization using blockchain technology to solve this problem. Heinrich emphasized, "Recording the AI development process on a blockchain so that anyone can verify it greatly increases AI transparency," adding, "(This approach is) the first step to making AI a public good."

Demonstrating technical capability through large-scale fundraising

From its founding, ZeroG concentrated on building an AI-specialized blockchain because it saw clear structural limits in existing layer-1s. To that end, ZeroG recruited AI and blockchain experts, including hiring Dr. Ming Wu, co-founder of the layer-1 blockchain Conflux (CFX), as chief technology officer (CTO).

A distinctive feature of ZeroG is that it divides the infrastructure needed for AI development and deployment into three main services. Specifically, ZeroG operates ▲ ZeroG Compute (AI model inference and training execution) ▲ ZeroG Storage (storage for AI inference outputs) ▲ ZeroG Data Availability (data publishing and verification).

Heinrich said, "If you try to solve compute, storage, and data needed for AI all on a single layer, bottlenecks occur," and added, "Operating each function independently dramatically increases cost efficiency and processing speed." He continued, "Because the structure involves multiple operators, users can choose faster and cheaper infrastructure, and all processes are recorded on-chain, enhancing transparency."

ZeroG's technical capabilities are considered already proven. In last year's testnet phase, ZeroG verified network stability through Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Alibaba Cloud. It has also received a total of US$325 million (about 500 billion won) in funding from heavyweight investors such as OKX Ventures, Samsung Next, and Animoca Brands.

"Personal AI will become a killer app in South Korea"

He also expressed expectations for South Korea. Heinrich said, "Korea is one of the countries with the highest smartphone usage in the world," adding, "The speed at which new technologies are adopted is also very fast." He said, "Korea will play a leading role in the process of AI-based services entering everyday life."

Heinrich believes there is strong 'fit' between the personal AI ZeroG Labs is developing and the Korean market. ZeroG Labs' personal AI provides a conversational service like ChatGPT but is a kind of 'private AI' where all data is processed only on the user's device. Heinrich said, "In Korea, where people handle all activities on their smartphones, personal AI agents will spread explosively," and added, "If we provide the experience of owning AI on a smartphone, it could become a 'killer app'."

He also mentioned token value. The ZeroG token is used for AI-related services within the ZeroG network and for gas fee payments. Heinrich explained, "The ZeroG token is not just an investment asset but the core fuel that powers the ecosystem," and added, "It is designed so that as actual usage increases, the token's intrinsic value can rise as well."