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By Jeff Wilser|Edited by Nelson Wang
Updated Dec 10, 2024, 7:56 p.m. UTCPublished Dec 10, 2024, 3:30 p.m. UTC
There are many in the Web3 space who have only recently jumped into AI. Illia Polosukhin isn’t one of them. Long before he co-founded the decentralized app blockchain protocol NEAR, Polosukhin worked at Google as an AI researcher and co-wrote the seminal 2017 paper “Attention is All you Need,” which is widely credited as pioneering the “transformer” technology that powers popular large language model (LLMs) AI apps such as ChatGPT. His AI credentials are impeccable.
“AI is a really powerful force,” Polosukhin told me in 2023, “but what we don’t want is it to be controlled and biased by a single company.” So now Polosukhin is marrying his original love (AI) with NEAR’s mission of decentralization, working to create an entire ecosystem for decentralized AI, from compute to training to agents.
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At NEAR’s recent [Redacted] conference in Bangkok, there were literal signs everywhere showing just how seriously Polosukhin is taking this: “AI is NEAR.”
This profile is part of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year’s nominees, click here.
Jeff Wilser is the author of 7 books including Alexander Hamilton’s Guide to Life, The Book of Joe: The Life, Wit, and (Sometimes Accidental) Wisdom of Joe Biden, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month in both Non-Fiction and Humor.
Jeff is a freelance journalist and content marketing writer with over 13 years of experience. His work has been published by The New York Times, New York magazine, Fast Company, GQ, Esquire, TIME, Conde Nast Traveler, Glamour, Cosmo, mental_floss, MTV, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, and Comstock’s Magazine. He covers a wide range of topics including travel, tech, business, history, dating and relationships, books, culture, blockchain, film, finance, productivity, psychology, and specializes in translating “geek to plain-talk.” His TV appearances have ranged from BBC News to the The View.
Jeff also has a strong business background. He began his career as a financial analyst for Intel Corporation, and spent 10 years providing data analysis and customer segmentation insights for a $200 million division of Scholastic Publishing. This makes him a good fit for corporate and business clients. His corporate clients range from Reebok to Kimpton Hotels to AARP.
Jeff is represented by Rob Weisbach Creative Management.
