The team behind Iris.ai, an artificial intelligence tool that enables researchers to find helpful scientific studies, on Monday launched a community-governed artificial intelligence (AI) engine, Project Aiur, to further the reach of scientific knowledge around the globe.
Blockchain-enabled, Project Aiur is intended to facilitate a community-monitored engine and allow users to access and contribute to a validated repository of scientific research, the company said in a statement. The engine is referred to as a “Knowledge Validation Engine” (KVE), and users are expected to submit research and have it verified against all other research available on the topic worldwide.
“Aiur aims to be part of bringing radical change to a highly lucrative, oligopolistic scientific publishing industry that has led to a dysfunctional incentive model,” a statement said.
One motive for the launch is to broaden the accessibility of research and deconstruct roadblocks—the often costly fees to access such studies, for example—to information that the company says is “hampering global progress.”
“Research professionals are pressured to deliver, publish and review on tight deadlines, creating perverse incentives to exaggerate facts and omit assumptions and constraints,” a statement said.
Project Aiur also plans to bring researchers, coders, and anyone interested in science into its ecosystem to address what the company calls the “numerous problems damaging the scientific research community.”
The AIUR token enables membership, voting rights and access to the KVE and other tools developed on top of the community’s software, and will be available in an initial coin offering, expected to launch in late May 2018, a statement said. Seventy-five percent of the funds will be allocated to the community itself.
The AIUR token sale will target approximately USD 12.38 million, with a minimum for completion of 60 percent and a hard cap of 500 percent. Iris.ai’s founders will not receive any direct compensation, a statement said.
