Part 1: The Vision - Why We Need Collaborative AI Agents

TL;DR

AI power is concentrating in a few Big Tech companies who control the models, the data, and what’s possible. But there’s an alternative: networks of private, individually-controlled AI agents that can collaborate with each other without anyone giving up data sovereignty. Imagine your family’s AI agents helping an elderly relative remember faces in photos - without uploading anything to Facebook. Or your neighborhood’s security camera AIs working together to solve incidents - without sending footage to corporate servers. This isn’t science fiction. The technology exists now. This is Part 1 of our series exploring how collaborative agents can democratize AI and put power back in the hands of individuals and communities.

The Impossible Choice

When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, we watched thousands of businesses face an impossible choice:

Use AI and risk everything - Upload your client data, your proprietary knowledge, your competitive secrets to servers controlled by Big Tech.

Or fall behind - Watch your competitors embrace AI while you stick with outdated tools, slowly losing ground.

For most businesses, this wasn’t really a choice at all. They held their breath, crossed their fingers, and uploaded their data anyway. After all, everyone else was doing it, right?