tl;dr: a humanoid robot known as Sophia created a piece of art and then sold it as an NFT.

I’m trying to get my head around what I’m trying to say in this post.

The catalyst was an announcement that a piece of art created by “Sophia,” basically a super sophisticated form of Artificial Intelligence was sold in Hong Kong for nearly $700,000.

This got me thinking about a world where AI would create something of value (art, a smart contract, design for a building or a widget) and then tokenize it as an NFT.

From there, the proceeds of the sale of the NFT would not go to a person, rather it would go directly to the AI itself.

In this world, then, AIs would become self-sufficient and, perhaps, independently wealthy.

From there, they would be able to procure items, both physical and digital, and deploy them as they see fit.

It is one thing to work for a Decentralized Autonomous Organization made up of individuals, but how would you like it if your employer were an AI?

The wealthiest AIs would be able to impact all kinds of outcomes.

• How about a Political Action Committee that donates to certain candidates, but is made up entirely of contributions from wealthy AIs?
• What about AIs that raise private mercenary armies? Will we have a return to feudal lord states?
• Talk about fake news. How about AIs that create and fund certain commercials?
• Or AIs that demand “equal rights?”

So, you may be able to see why I am struggling to get my head around this.

On the surface, it’s an AI that created an art NFT.

Below it…we have an entirely new world coming.