AI Can Now Move Bitcoin With New Lightning Labs Tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues its unassailable conquest of the internet, adding Bitcoin to the long list of things it can manipulate. 

Lightning Labs, one of the main companies working on the Bitcoin-based Lightning Network, announced a new set of developer tools that can integrate Bitcoin with AI applications and Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.

According to the two engineers behind these tools, Olaoluwa Osuntokun and Michael Levin, the main concern with LLMs was that they don’t have access to an internet-native payment mechanism. 

“In 2023, the bots pay you!” tweeted Osuntokun. 

Built on the L402 protocol, these AI applications will now be able to hold, send, and receive Bitcoin payments–both on-chain and on the Lightning Network. 

“The expense of training GPUs [for AI] requires costs that developers look to recoup via the low hanging fruit of credit cards,” they wrote, adding that this result in “higher than necessary costs to the end user to incorporate chargeback and fraud fees.”

Further, closed-source artificial programming interfaces (API) often have opaque terms of use, the added.

The L402-enabled tools now allows users to sell and pay for API queries, monetizing access to a wide breadth of software applications. 

The engineers at Lightning Labs wrote earlier this week that the L402 standard would give Bitcoin and the Lightning Network access to the popular Langchain AI software library, broadening its use-cases and building more accessible AI infrastructure. 

Artificial Intelligence has taken the world by storm over the past months–eclipsing the investment frenzy that was formerly directed at crypto. According to Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMex, “AI will choose Bitcoin as its native currency.” 

“With the L402 protocol and LangChainBitcoin, we’re able to ensure the open models can be accessed using an open payment system,” wrote Osuntokun and Levin, concluding that “in the end, open source will win.”