Artificial Intelligence, Biometrics and How They Shape Our Digital Reality
July 16th, 2019

Written by: Lisa Marks-Canty, CEO & Founder – DocBloxs / CEO – ChainNinja

It is no secret that technology has been developing at an incredibly rapid pace with Biometrics, AI and Blockchain technology being used to perform several functions individually. But the question arises, what are the possible benefits of these technologies if they were to work in tandem with one another?

Firstly, security will be significantly enhanced. AI’s algorithms collect data such as a consumer’s buying habits (what do they buy? Where do they buy from? How much money they usually spend? Etc.) and their geographical location to check any future transactions against previous data to determine whether the transaction is valid or fraudulent. The security of these transactions can then be further improved by feeding the AI system with data from behavioral biometric solutions that include the pressure a person applies to tap the screen, the way they type or swipe their screen and their voice. Even if someone were to manage to make a fraudulent transaction that matched the nature of the actual person’s transaction the AI would stop the exchange perhaps due to the manner in which the screen was tapped!  Additionally, financial transactions are also verified by physical biometric solutions including fingerprint or iris scans and facial recognition systems, but the possibility remains that any of the above data used for verification may be stolen or changed.

This is where Blockchain becomes crucial. The data recorded using Blockchain is completely secure and immutable making it the perfect tool to act as an online ledger as adding any new information via adding a block requires proof-of-work i.e. there are miners who essentially verify and approve the addition of a new transaction or data. This makes blockchain as one source of immutable truth wherein the key biometric identifiers of an individual or there habitual patterns aswell as their exclusively private keys can be stored once for all. The blockchain can then be the one truth which will never be compromised in determining the identity of the individual and his set of permissions and his login credentials, in dealing with an application in any domain. This sudden entry of an immutable validation mechanism, aka the blockchain, has encouraged Biometrics and AI based on the Biometrics to advance as complemetely reliable and acceptable tools in establishing digital reality.

While AI has been around since the late 1950s, its usage has increased over the 1990s and 2000s, but many remain skeptical of it despite its ability to enhance operations due to is its black box-like nature as the AI functions on its own making probabilistic calculations based on data fed to it. Such fears are further exacerbated by reports on companies such as Facebook that shut down an experiment after two artificially intelligent programs began communicating with one another in a newly created language only they both understood. By using Blockchain a degree of transparency can be introduced to AI-based operations in terms of tracking what data is being fed to the AI and making any adjustments as required. Another issue with AI is the centralization of data i.e. data is stored with one central authority making its susceptible to attacks by hackers, but if AI is combined with Blockchain (a decentralized system with no central authority) then it too can incorporate decentralization into its workings and heighten the security of sensitive data as there are several copies of the data.

Overall Blockchain, Biometrics, and AI are somewhat complementary in nature as each can be used to counter or minimize the disadvantages of the other. By using all three perhaps we can aspire to a world where our data is not in the hands of third-party corporations such as banks or Uber, Google, Amazon, etc. but rather extremely safe through multiple verifications and strong security measures.