Currently, IBM is trying to integrate artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to form a more powerful model. The combination of blockchain’s near-frictionless value transactions and artificial intelligence’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data at high speeds could mark the beginning of an entirely new paradigm. For the past three months, Tim Hahn, IBM’s chief architect for Internet of Things security, has been focused on bringing blockchain to his company’s artificial intelligence computer, called Watson. Hahn told CoinDesk: “What we’re doing is just leveraging blockchain technology and devices so that the information provided by the device can affect the blockchain… You’re starting to get into things that only exist in the movies.” Potential applications include using distributed ledgers to allow devices to perform tasks such as running self-diagnostics and higher-level services at set times, which could someday allow regulators to go back to the time a device failed to determine what went wrong, Hahn said. Watson meets the Internet of Things While exciting, this work is still in its early stages of development. Just last March, IBM announced a $3 billion, four-year plan to build an entire unit specifically for the Internet of Things (IoT), a term used to describe the connection of various hardware devices, such as washing machines and thermostats, to the Internet. Such connections are expected to generate $235 billion in revenue by the end of this year, up 22 percent from the year before, according to a 2015 Gartner report, which also predicts that there could be 6.4 billion connected devices in use worldwide by the end of this year, and 20.8 billion by 2020. However, as opportunities arise, security risks also follow. For Hahn's project, the Watson IoT Group — a merger of the IBM Internet of Things Foundation and IBM Watson — will explore how AI can help make "smart" devices more secure. He said: “We find the merger between IBM Watson’s capabilities and the IoT Foundation to be interesting, and we are convinced that it will be even better if the two are combined.” IBM breaks down Watson IoT into four categories: device connection; information management, storage and conversion; risk management; and data analysis. Hahn’s work specifically focuses on the third category, how blockchain can be used to make devices more secure for users, in part by reducing the level of human involvement in the operation. Watson- powered blockchain “In the early days, we were just building a prototype,” Hahn said. Still, these early prototypes allow device owners to register on a blockchain and use smart contracts to create different access tiers to personalize features for different users. User-specific registration not only helps prevent misuse of corporate devices, but also protects users themselves from being compromised. According to Hahn, future device registries will need to last throughout their "lifecycle," across different owners, and the state of firmware, the resident software, could be used to help regulators identify the exact point at which a device failed. Artificial intelligence software solutions can be implemented remotely using blockchain technology. "You better be ready to update the device throughout its lifecycle," Hahn said. "As we know, after a device is released, it's time to find flaws." Hahn suggested that implementing joint ownership of equipment, where multiple companies have a vested interest in its current state of production and operation, could also be improved through AI blockchain. He went on to say that “blockchain will allow these parties to jointly set the state of a device and make decisions based on smart contracts encoded in a language.” Early experiments While IBM’s work on integrating Watson and blockchain has just begun, the company has been experimenting with blockchain technology for some time. Back in 2014, Paul Brody, a former vice president at IBM, described to CoinDesk how blockchain could power the Internet of Things. In January 2015, IBM and Samsung also jointly unveiled a proof-of-concept called ADEPT that integrated BitTorrent, Ethereum and TeleHash at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In February 2016, Hahn gave a presentation at this year's Internet of Things conference on mobile and cloud technologies and how the Watson IoT platform can be implemented to help prevent risks for a variety of different businesses. As part of Hahn’s work to improve security by integrating blockchain with Watson, he also improved other potential areas, including security analytics, data protection, auditing and logging. Hahn told CoinDesk: “I don’t think blockchain and security are synonymous. They may be related, but they’re certainly not the same. And there are also many ways to use blockchain that are not secure.” From: Bitcoin Chinese Network | 
