January 11th 2025
DFINITY kicked off 2025 with an incredible video featuring Dominic Williams. In just seventeen minutes, he provided an overview of the future of the decentralised Internet. The purpose of this article is to summarise the event by explaining certain technicalities that may not be familiar.
“Where AI Builds”
Dominic discussed the concept of the self-writing Internet, where users can interact with AI in natural language to create web applications.
The demonstration highlighted how this AI-driven process streamlines software creation. With just a few commands or conversations, the AI generates the code necessary for web applications and deploys it in real-time.
In essence, anyone—regardless of technical background— talks to the AI and have it build an application based on their specifications. If realised, this could revolutionise the development process, allowing people without technical expertise to contribute to the digital world.
Williams emphasised how institutions or governments, may use this technology to build systems autonomously and tamper-proof. Traditionally, such entities rely on SaaS providers for cloud-based solutions. SaaS involves significant costs, reliance on third parties, and potential security risks.
Self-building systems powered by AI can give these institutions greater control over their data and systems.
Software as a Service (SaaS) refers to a software delivery model in which applications are hosted by a third-party provider and made available over the Internet. Rather than purchasing, installing, and maintaining software on individual machines, SaaS allows businesses and individuals to access applications via a subscription model. Common examples include Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce.
Challenges Faced by Current IT Systems
Current IT systems are burdened by unbounded complexity, with nuances and details spread across millions of pages of code and resources. This creates significant inefficiencies, as even minor changes can become time-consuming and error-prone tasks.
Cybersecurity presents a growing challenge. The traditional IT stack—based on silicon and other hardware—has limitations in implementing advanced security measures. Reliance on silicon constrains efforts to enhance security, leaving systems vulnerable to attacks. The traditional IT paradigm is unable to evolve quickly enough to keep pace with development, resulting in lagging security updates and system improvements.
The Internet is largely controlled by a few tech giants, making any disruptions or failures—such as security breaches or service outages—potentially catastrophic. Dominic cited two examples:
- CrowdStrike Incident: A security patch update caused 8.5 million systems to crash, preventing them from restarting. This incident highlighted the fragility of current systems, where a single poorly tested patch can have disastrous consequences.
- AWS Outage: A disruption in an AWS data centre temporarily stopped working for various services, including the New York Subway.
ICP and the Future of Internet Security
ICP aims to address the fragility and security risks inherent in traditional IT systems. ICP introduces a distributed, decentralised computing model resistant to attacks and failures. This new paradigm creates a compute stack immune to cyberattacks by replicating computational processes across distributed hardware using a mathematically secure network protocol.
The protocol employs Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), a mechanism ensuring data integrity even in the presence of faulty or malicious actors. Simply put, BFT guarantees that data hosted by ICP’s infrastructure cannot be corrupted.
ICP’s computational processes are not confined to a single location or server but are spread across multiple nodes in a decentralised network. One of ICP’s key innovations is the Orthogonal Persistence Paradigm, which ensures that once data is stored, it remains secure and available across sessions and applications. This enhances both reliability and data integrity.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance is a property of a distributed computing system that allows it to continue operating correctly even when some of its nodes (computers) fail or act maliciously. It addresses the Byzantine Generals Problem, where the challenge is to ensure all loyal participants agree on a strategy despite some participants potentially providing false information.
Williams envisions a future where AI-driven systems like ICP enable millions of non-technical people to engage with technology and build their own applications. This democratisation of app creation will create new roles, such as prompt engineers, and open up opportunities for individuals in various industries to contribute to the tech ecosystem.
The development of the self-writing Internet and the decentralised nature of ICP could lead to exponential growth in the tech industry, offering more employment opportunities and driving the creation of millions of new web applications.
With AI and the ICP paradigm, the ability to create and interact with technology will no longer be limited by technical expertise. This marks the beginning of a revolution that could reshape industries, empower individuals, and change the way we interact with the digital world.
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