Did AI generate the text you are reading? Have the visuals you’ve encountered been created by AI? In the age of such uncertainties, Clara Tsao grapples with serious concerns—from national security issues to her ambition of fostering a more reliable internet. Tsao is the co-founder of the Trust & Safety Professional Association and has also taken on the role of President of the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows.

“For me, it’s always been about how we can infuse more democracy into the web, ensuring that it’s an open network where everyone has the fundamental human right to access it,” states Tsao, who is also a Founding Officer at the Filecoin Foundation and will be speaking at the AI Summit during Consensus 2025.

Tsao emphasizes that AI complicates her mission: “AI is going to turbocharge everything that we see today, for better or worse.” This creates a greater need for transparency to differentiate between AI creations and human contributions.

AI and Misinformation

“One major threat posed by AI is distinguishing AI-generated content from human-generated content. When I worked to counter foreign influence operations, we faced challenges in identifying deceptive actors from adversary countries.”

On a similar note, in 2016, Facebook removed certain Russian media channels tied to the Internet Research Agency that attempted to manipulate the election narrative.

As the ease of fabricating misinformation grows due to AI capabilities, Tsao sees blockchain as a viable solution to uphold digital reliability. Using decentralized technologies, it’s possible to track and prove how data changes over time, thereby safeguarding against manipulation.

Through collaborations with various nonprofits, such as MuckRock, Tsao aims to archive essential information while ensuring its integrity. The future of data storage and verification hinges on decentralized systems—making it more accessible and less prone to monopolistic control.

> "Our mission is to ensure that data remains cost-effective to store and accessible, allowing users to choose their storage methods without being trapped in a ‘walled garden,’" notes Tsao.

In essence, Filecoin's approach advocates for a verifiable and democratized data storage ecosystem, critical for a reliable and open internet.