Opinion articles present diverse opinions, and do not represent the stance of WEB3+.
AI Applications Are Easy to Understand, but the Significance of Web3 is Hard to Grasp
Due to the AI book assistant project, some readers have asked me whether I am following the trend and shifting from web3 to AI, lamenting that blockchain is just a passing cloud.
No, web3 remains my core focus, and as I mentioned earlier, I will dedicate at least another three years to LikeCoin to fulfill my ten-year commitment. Whether it’s web3 or AI, as long as it makes Liker Land more user-friendly and meaningful, I am excited.
The key issue is not whether to shift tracks, but how web3 and AI can improve reading and publishing.
Improving Efficiency, Destroying Ecosystems
I have said that AI aims to promote production efficiency, while blockchain seeks to improve production relations. The value proposition of AI is simple—it does the work for you, increases efficiency, and reduces costs. In publishing and reading, AI can help authors brainstorm, organize data, proofread and format for publishers, read texts aloud for readers, translate entire books, and perform deep analysis.
What is less often discussed is that while AI improves production efficiency, it is also changing (not necessarily improving) the industry structure. In publishing, the most obvious change is in translation. Previously, only major authors and bestselling books could afford professional translators, but now, with a few keystrokes, anyone can produce a reasonably good translation, and AI translators are continuously improving.
It is hard to say whether the livelihood of professional translators will improve or worsen in this situation. Although it may seem that their jobs are being taken over by cheap labor, we should not overlook the fact that translators can also use AI to improve efficiency. As the threshold for translation lowers, the demand for proofreading translations may also increase.
In any case, what is certain is that AI is changing the role of translators in the publishing industry, and similar changes are happening in proofreading, editing, design, and even creation. Kindle has long prohibited works written by AI, but as more people use AI to help with their work, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine the extent of AI’s involvement, and even defining it clearly is becoming extremely difficult.
It’s not just individual workers who are threatened. Current large language models know everything, and beyond web data, they also have access to large amounts of high-quality books. International copyright laws emphasize that pirated copies must be prosecuted, but a century later, AI models that can read billions of words in seconds and rewrite them have learned everything, without needing to make copies. They swallow a century of wisdom in an instant, without even a thank you.
The clearest example of this phenomenon is (not open) OpenAI, which is built on Google’s transformer research and has used data from most of the internet for training. After achieving key results, it switched to closed source, controlling the production of data, and “lowering the dimensionality” to outsmart other low-intelligence entities, benefiting from new production relations, destroying while building.
As I continue, it moves from individual to whole, from production efficiency to production relations, and it becomes more difficult to understand and more disconnected.
Production Relations: That’s Just the Way It Is
“Production relations” is a concept proposed by Marxism. Rather than explaining it from an academic perspective, I will attempt to elaborate within the context of publishing.
Let us consider the production process of a book, from writing to reading: author Alice writes the text, commissions publisher Bob to produce it, the operator Carol promotes it in e-book stores, and finally, it is sold to reader Dave. In this entire process, Dave pays money to gain knowledge or entertainment, Carol controls the sales channels to earn profit, Bob earns income from professional services such as editing, typesetting, and design, and Alice exchanges her knowledge and imagination for (likely insufficient) compensation. This chain of exchanges and interactions between “raw material suppliers,” “text factories,” stores, and consumers constitutes the production relations in publishing.
This concept is very basic, and it is hard to imagine anyone not understanding it. But “not understanding” has two meanings: intellectual and emotional. The former refers to not understanding the words or concepts, while the latter refers to not being able to empathize. When I say “I don’t understand what’s so interesting about TikTok,” it means I can’t relate, no matter how much you explain it to me. I have observed that sometimes when readers say they don’t understand, they are focusing on the emotional aspect. Those who don’t understand production relations are those who view roles, participation, and benefits in creation, editing, publishing, sales, and purchasing as “that’s just the way it is,” without grasping what should be reconsidered.
This inability to empathize is essentially accepting the status quo, treating existence as truth: royalties are insufficient for survival? In the age of audiovisual media, that’s just the way it is; one platform dominates? Market economy, that’s just the way it is; e-books cause physical bookstores to decline? The wheel of time, that’s just the way it is; when you buy an e-book, you can’t resell it after reading? Business is business, that’s just the way it is. Everything seems taken for granted, yet the emergence of blockchain has shown the possibility of change, which is what fascinates me about it.
In 2022, I used web3 technology to experiment with self-publishing. In 34 days, through 21 channels, I sold 1,024 copies of a “no copyright infringement” book to 943 readers from 18 regions, each priced at 9.9 USD with a signed message. The channels involved included both self-media and traditional bookstores. Readers were free to use the text file, including printing it into physical books and reselling it. Although these numbers and scale are insignificant, the decentralized e-book model, like a mischievous child, challenges the order that adults take for granted: authors retain all rights, authors rely on intermediaries for publishing and sales, readers must purchase to read, purchasing is for reading, and the relationship between authors and readers is a one-to-one transactional relationship. Web3 allows us to reshape production relations and reduces the prevalence of “that’s just the way it is” in the world.
Lu Xun once said, “There was no road on the ground, but when many people walk it, it becomes a road.” The mischievous child may not immediately change the world, but who can say for certain that it won’t spark a revolution in the publishing industry?
Humanities as the Foundation, Technology as the Tool
I remember in college during Economics 101, the professor always used A(pple) and B(anana) to explain the relationship between substitute goods. When the demand for apples rises, the demand for bananas decreases. Fast forward thirty years, A(I) and B(lockchain) are no longer substitutes. AI can win without blockchain losing, and vice versa.
AI has a wide range of applications, while web3 holds far-reaching significance. The purpose of AI is easy to understand, while the significance of web3’s applications is hard to grasp, but both are equally important. While developing AI book assistants using large language models to improve reading efficiency and add enjoyment, I will not forget my original intention to preserve history through web3, increase authors’ and the publishing industry’s income, enhance reader participation, and reshape the stereotypical consumer relationship.
I have not shifted from web3 to AI. My “track” has always been grounded in humanities, with technology as the tool.
p.s. The preparations for the new location of Yishou Bookstore are in full swing. I’ve moved some old books to the bookstore and canceled the mini-storage subscription. Although the contract period had ended, the cancellation form had many fields, all marked as required. Annoyed, I casually filled in “No money” for the reason. A few days later, a young administrative girl who had some connection to my storage sent me an email saying she saw the reason I gave for canceling and kindly asked me, “Please don’t be unhappy, keep going.” Looking at the email, I felt guilty for casually lying to the young girl, but at the same time, I felt very warm. Hmm, I will keep going.
Source: AI Applications Are Easy to Understand, but the Significance of Web3 is Hard to Grasp
Opinion articles present diverse opinions, and do not represent the stance of WEB3+.