The AI x Blockchain landscape has been buzzing with new projects, but not all of them truly combine the strengths of these two transformative technologies. While many claims to merge artificial intelligence with blockchain, whether these claims are valid is often questionable. However, one project that genuinely stands out in this space is Sentient.
Sentient takes a unique approach by implementing Model Fingerprinting—a technology I recently learned about in an AI Safety class—and using it to enforce the ownership and monetization of open AI models in a decentralized environment. This article will explore how Sentient operates, its vision for creating a hybrid AI model ecosystem, and the technical foundations that make it a standout project in the AI x Blockchain sector.
Overview of Sentient
Sentient is an AI research organization fostering a new Open AGI Economy for AI Builders and Creators. The team is building platforms and protocols to enable open-source AI developers to:
(1) monetize their models, data, and other innovations, (2) collaborate to build powerful AIs collectively, and (3) be significant stakeholders in a new Open AGI economy.
You can read the Sentient Whitepaper to learn how the whole ecosystem works.
Why Only Sentient?
Today, the development of AI is almost entirely controlled by a few organizations and a few individuals at those organizations. These organizations are locked into a feverish race to build AGI and, in the process, make critical decisions for all of humanity.
On the other hand, a large fraction of humanity is working to build AI developers and user s’ skills. They have limited ways to showcase and contribute their skills and, even worse, ways to be gainfully employed.
At Sentient, The aim is to bring ownership rights to open AI development. They will birth an era of AI entrepreneurship by inventing science and technology that enables anyone to build, collaborate, own, and monetize AI products.
Sentient envisions establishing a thriving ecosystem of natively incentivized researchers, developers, and users collaborating on an open AI platform to build AGI, transcending the boundaries of traditional monolithic and closed API-based AI platforms.
Unlocking the potential of these millions to contribute sincerely to AGI development is essential for aligning the AI Sentient builds with humanity. With many working on humanity’s AI rather than a few, there are more eyes to watch out for dangerous systems and more heads to think about how Sentient can build aligned AI.
As a community-built open AGI platform, Sentient will enable unprecedented community governance of AGI. Through this platform, the community can decide AGI development, usage, and safety as one rather than fighting individuals or corporations.
The new AI economy is open, competitive, collaborative, and enabled by new technology.
How Sentient Does It
Sentient is building an AI platform for builders to collaborate and monetize innovations. AI builders are this economy’s workhorses and principal actors, innovating and collaborating to build powerful new AI offerings. The underlying blockchain protocol and incentive mechanism provide the necessary economic alignment for the evolution of Open AGI in this collective offering.
For all this to work, the powerful AI models hosted on Sentient must be Open, Monetizable, and loyal (OML)—“loyal” models remain aligned with the community that built them, enforced by the underlying blockchain protocol.
Sentient has pioneered a new and ambitious field in AI research using OML models. OML models will drive a shared Open AGI economy, supporting millions of AI agents and further downstream applications for billions of AI users.
Beyond introducing this new format, The platform will enable mass collaboration and discussion through the systems the Sentient team is working on. Sentient building the tools for a new era of technology, finance, and society.
A Platform for Agents and Humans: The next generation of AI can reason, plan, and act strategically. This AI will be built using new innovative agents and learning from interactions between these agents, underlying models, and humans. The Sentient AI platform will enable the community and the AI they built to participate and learn from these interactions, with the underlying blockchain protocol ensuring everyone is incentive-aligned.
The Sentient Foundation
The Sentient Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting the development and growth of open-source AI technologies. The Sentient Foundation aims to create a decentralized, transparent, open AI landscape. It is dedicated to creating a new Open AGI economy where the AI builder is the principal actor and a significant stakeholder. It will provide the necessary infrastructure and resources to create this economy and ensure that the AI revolution benefits all of humanity. By promoting the development of Open Monetizable Loyal (OML) Models, the foundation will counter the rent-seeking behavior of centralized AI companies and usher in a collaborative ecosystem where diverse contributions are valued and rewarded.
Sentient Foundation Committee
NameRoleBackground
Pramod ViswanathResearchForrest G. Hamrick Professor of Engineering at Princeton University
Himanshu TyagiTechnologyProfessor of Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science
Sandeep NailwalStrategyFounder at Polygon
SensysGrowthVenture studio creating advanced products and applications for Sentient
Sentient Foundation Contributors
NameRoleBackground
Sewoong OhAI ResearchProfessor of Computer Science at the University of Washington
Sai KrishnaPlatformSVP of Platform at Polygon
Yihan JiangAI ResearchAI and Communications Research, University of Washington
Zerui ChengAI ResearchAI and Blockchains Research, Princeton University
Oleg GolevAI ResearchComputer Science, Princeton University
Edoardo ContenteAI ResearchDeep Learning / ML, Princeton University
Ramakrishna VenkataramanEngineeringData Architech @ IBM, Tech Fellow Goldman Sachs
Anshul NaseryAI ResearchPhd @ U of Washington, Prev Google Research, IIT
Mit DaveAI EngineerFull stack engineer, Flipcart
Jonathan HayaseAI ResearchCS Phd @ U of Washington
Ben Tsengel FinchProductElectrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University
Sentient’s $85 Million Seed Round
Sentient successfully closed an $85 million seed funding round, a significant milestone in the Sentient mission to build an open, community-driven AGI platform. This round was co-led by Founders Fund, the renowned venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel, alongside Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures.
This round included contributions from a diverse array of forward-thinking funds and organizations, including:
Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Framework Ventures, Ethereal, Robot Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Dao5, Delphi, Primitive Ventures, Nomad, Hack VC, Arrington Capital, Hypersphere, IDG, Topology, Protagonist, Folius, Sky9, Canonical Crypto, Dispersion Capital, Mirana, Foresight, Hashkey, Spartan, Republic, Frontiers Capital
This incredible backing strengthens Sentient’s ability to accelerate the development of open AI and underscores the confidence these investors have in a future where AGI is community-built and owned. With this funding, Sentient will continue to expand its platform, empower AI builders, and bring innovative, ethical AI to the forefront of technology development.
The team looks forward to working closely with their investors as they build a decentralized, transparent, and collaborative AI economy that benefits all of humanity.
Sentient Product Roadmap
Join the Sentient Movement: How You Can Get Involved
There are several meaningful ways to become a part of Sentient’s mission and contribute to the development of open AGI. Whether you’re a developer, researcher, or AI enthusiast, here’s how you can join us:
Engage in Discussions: Dive into the conversations on the OpenAGI Discourse Forum and follow us on X (formerly Twitter). Share your insights, ideas, and feedback with fellow AI innovators and stay up-to-date with the latest developments.
Join the Sentient Community: Be among the first to experience Sentient by filling out the early access form. This will give you an inside look at the platform, where you can connect with other AI builders and collaborators.
Contribute to Model Development: Participate in calls for contributions to take an active role in shaping the future of AGI. Your expertise could directly impact the Sentient platform’s development of advanced AI models.
Attend the Open AGI Summit: Stay engaged with Sentient’s initiatives by following the Open AGI Summit, a community event where you can collaborate with leading minds in AI, learn from experts, and contribute to the broader discussion on AGI.
By becoming a part of Sentient, you’re not just joining a platform—you’re joining a movement to democratize AI development and ensure a future where AGI is community-built and aligned with humanity’s values.
Sentient X Spheron: Unite to Power the Open AGI Economy with Decentralized Compute
We are feeling incredible about announcing the partnership between Sentient and Spheron. Together, we will accelerate the future of AI development through decentralized, scalable infrastructure. This collaboration combines Sentient’s pioneering Open AGI platform and Spheron’s cutting-edge decentralized GPU leasing network, providing AI builders unparalleled access to the compute power necessary for training, running, and monetizing AI models.
Why This Partnership Matters
Sentient’s vision of an Open AGI Economy empowers AI developers and creators to build, collaborate, and monetize their innovations in a decentralized environment. The partnership with Spheron strengthens this mission by offering access to a decentralized compute marketplace, where developers can seamlessly lease powerful GPUs—ensuring the high performance needed to support OML (Open, Monetizable, Loyal) models and the vast network of AI agents operating on Sentient’s platform.
Spheron’s decentralized infrastructure not only lowers the cost barrier but also ensures the scalability and security that open-source AI developers need. By tapping into Spheron’s global network of GPUs, Sentient’s AI builders can now train more advanced models without relying on centralized, costly providers.
What This Means for AI Builders and the AGI Community
This collaboration opens up new possibilities for AI innovators by enabling them to access compute power on-demand directly from Spheron’s decentralized network, allowing them to focus on what they do best—creating revolutionary AI solutions. The sentient community will benefit from the following:
Scalable GPU resources for AI model training and deployment.
Cost-effective and secure compute infrastructure, decentralized and owned by the community.
Monetization opportunities are available through Sentient’s and Spheron’s platforms.
Sentient and Spheron are setting a new standard for how the next generation of AI will be developed—decentralized, open, and community-driven. We are excited to empower AI builders to push the boundaries of innovation, shaping the future of AGI for the benefit of all humanity.
Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting collaboration!
