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Satoshi Nakamoto may have effectively disappeared over 12 years ago, but two AI buffs are keen to revive the ability to chat with the famed creator of Bitcoin (BTC).
On May 31, Bitcoin FilmFest co-host Pierre Corbin and chatbot co-developer Hugo Ferrer released “Talk2Satoshi”, an artificial intelligence chatbot designed to answer questions about Bitcoin and the economy as if they were coming from Nakamoto.
Announcing my newest project!
Together with @HugoFerrer_we’ve spent the last few weeks working on something that has been missing in #bitcoin: the Bitcoin GPT. We call it @talk2satoshi .
Try it out for free: https://t.co/IhWIVAZSsT https://t.co/AFQlb9Dxc9
— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) May 31, 2023
The model is essentially an OpenAI ChatGPT trained on a limited set of data, including Nakamoto’s public emails and forum posts. He also draws on other sources, including Cyfedyn Ammous’ book The Bitcoin Standard, Jeff Booth’s book The Price of Tomorrow, and Corbyn’s film The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin.
When tested, the chatbot generates responses that tend to be unsure about the future of fiat currencies and hopeful about Bitcoin, although they can give inconsistent answers depending on how it is prompted.
Check out an example:
Here’s the answer to “Is our debt sustainable in an inflationary world?”:Where else can you get this kind of answer? pic.twitter.com/euSj6oXqot
— Pierre Corbin (@CierrePorbin) May 31, 2023
For example, when asked a variant of the question “What is the future of Bitcoin?” it elicited separate responses saying that it was both “promising” and “uncertain”.
The model is not trained on more recent bitcoin developments such as the Ordinals protocol or BRC-20 tokens, and will often generate a response saying that it cannot comment on such topics. However, depending on the question, it can generate inconsistent responses for sequence numbers and BRC-20 tokens.
When asked about ordinals, one response said that Bitcoin “is not designed to store or transfer images or other types of data,” while another called it “an exciting and creative use of cryptocurrency.”
Related: Bitcoin Fragments May Become More Valuable Than Full Bitcoins
According to Corbin, the purpose of the bot is to show that AI tools can potentially be used in education.
The model can generate competent answers to questions about Bitcoin, such as how it works and how it is mined, and can also explain aspects of the network such as Satoshi.
Like a real person, the Nakamoto imitation bot is still shy about revealing its real identity and usually responds:
“My real name doesn’t matter. What matters is the decentralization of power that Bitcoin represents and its potential to revolutionize financial systems.”