Alex Shevchenko says that he is enthusiastic about user-specific front-ends and autonomous research agents, who, according to him, will produce unprecedented progress in the development of medicines and the creation of materials.
Shevchenko: autonomous AI agents and blockchain interoperability to re-shape technology and science
While the contemporary large language models (LLMs) have become “extremely” skilled in language -related tasks, Alex Shevchenko, co -founder and CEO of Aurora Labs, said that he is more “enthusiastic about the potential of helper agents for software, hardware and general technical tasks.” Although the technology is ‘not there yet’, a self-assured Shevchenko said that he ‘is committed to front-ends specifically generated by the user’.
In his written answers to questions from Bitcoin.com News, the CEO of Aurora Labs stated that the constant developments in the position of autonomous research agents believe him believe that the world is on the eve of unprecedented progress in the development of medicines and the creation of new ones Materials. In addition, Shevchenko, an expert in the field of blockchain and high-performance computing, said he has a future in which personal assistant agents for artificial intelligence (AI) perform tasks and achieve complex goals without human supervision.
In the meantime, the CEO of Aurora Labs acknowledges that the early portrayal of blockchain as an innovative technology that would eventually disrupt traditional industries has contributed to the resistance to the technology that is still going on today. However, he believes that the transparency of technology – one of the most important characteristics of blockchain – is a challenge for organizations and governments that are not used to critical research, hence their constant resistance to technology.
In the rest of his answers, Shevchenko also discussed the challenges associated with enabling interoperability between block chains. Below you will find all his answers to the questions sent.
Bitcoin.com News (BCN): one of the reasons why Blockchain technology initially gained momentum was because it was seen as a revolutionary, making traditional financial institutions feel threatened. In retrospect, do you think that the early positioning of the blockchain technology as a disruptive and revolutionary has led to Web2 companies looked at it in a negative light?
Alex Sjevchenko (AS): Absolute. Not only this, but also the early applications of technology: value transfers in dark markets. However, people quickly realized that crypto is the worst possible way to carry out anonymous transactions, because all information is publicly accessible. And this transparency also prevented non-financial institutions from the blockchain: the way in which many government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and many other companies used to work was to keep everything behind many doors closed. Blockchain exposes all processes, making stakeholders often uncomfortable in such traditional closed environments.
BCN: Making blockchain interoperability possible brings considerable safety challenges. Interoperability solutions are vulnerable to hacking, where many cyber criminals abuse weaknesses in protocols. What do you think contributes to these vulnerabilities, and how can the sector limit them?
As: We live in a world with several block chains and it is clear that this reality will not change quickly. As new solutions arise and others disappear, significant value flows naturally between block chains. That is why interoperability solutions generally contain huge amounts of assets. Rainbow Bridge, launched and successfully operated for four years by Aurora Labs without even a single hack, for example had more than $ 1.5 billion in very liquid assets (stables, ETH WBTC) on his contracts during the peak of the Bullmarkt from 2021. This is not something that university students are prepared for. And graduates are the medium persona of the industry. Simply put: we have grown too much and too quickly, so unsure in the field of security is just the growth problem.
Our recipe is to introduce as many security strokes as possible, so that the chance of production accidents is exponentially reduced. These layers are: Education about best practices in the field of technicians, automatic test agents, rigorous code assessment, pre-merge access to the codebase for audit companies, security audits by several parties before large releases, science tests with integration developers, gradual extermination of Functions, constant monitoring of shortcomings, bug premiums and in some cases insurance policies.
BCN: Nowadays there are countless stories about agents in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). What exciting developments in the field of AI do you think deserve more attention?
As: LLMs are extremely good at language -related tasks, because they were built especially for this purpose. The majority of the ‘WOW’ use scenarios are therefore about text analysis and generation. However, other types of models are on the rise, and LLMs themselves become increasingly capable in areas that go beyond language. I am very enthusiastic about the possibilities of helper agents for software, hardware and general technical tasks. We are not completely there yet, but I focus a lot on user-specific front-ends. In addition, there is a lot of development in the field of autonomous research agents – tools that can create new materials or medicines much faster than people and can optimize processes and structures. These powerful advanced tools have the potential to dramatically speed up scientific progress.
BCN: Do you think AI agents (fully autonomous AI bots) will be able to work together to achieve complex goals without human supervision?
As: Sooner or later, yes. I can easily imagine a world in which a personal assistant AI agent could perform tasks such as finding help opening a bank account and closing a deal with another specialized AI agent for this work. The human input can be as simple as setting a goal such as: “Make my life easier in this new country that I have just moved to.”
BCN: Aurora would be a network of virtual chains on the Near Protocol. Can you explain to our readers what these virtual chains are and how they open their doors to a multichain world?
As: Virtual Chains is a concept that looks like L2S, but with a twist. They can cross each other and the mother chain infrastructure. This function tackles the cold starting problem that is typical of L2s – where a newly launched L2 lacks essential infrastructure. With Virtual Chains you have all the infrastructure you need, such as RPCs, indexers, preservators, oracles, bridges, protocols for passing on messages, stablecoins, CEX integrations, the Defi-eco system, launching platforms, NFT marketplaces, explorers, explorers Cross-chain primitives, gas abstraction and much more. -Vele others is available from the first block.
Whereas setting up infrastructure for L2s often lasts months (if not years) and tens of millions of US dollars in Capex and millions per year costs Opex; Virtual chains achieve this without costs. This reduces the threshold for new usage scenarios dramatically, making projects possible that previously L2 or the even higher L1 costs could not pay. I expect that many great ideas will be generated in 2025 and will be tested quickly – hundreds, if not thousands.
BCN: Aurora has developed the Bitcoin Light Client and Relayer service, which enables interactions between the Bitcoin network and the Near protocol. What do Aurora’s efforts mean to connect Bitcoin and Near Protocol, now that the developer activity in the Bitcoin Defi and Web3 ecosystem is increasing for web3 builders and users?
As: Bitcoin has always been a cornerstone of the blockchain ecosystem and so far there were no ways to include this asset in Defi-simply because the Bitcoin script is simply too bad compared to the EVM options. However, new technologies such as Chain Signatures, innovated by the Near Protocol, made it possible to build really decentralized and permissionless solutions that bridge Bitcoin to other blockchain ecosystems.
With Bitcoin Light client we can expect two large types of projects on Near. The first is aimed at utilizing the value of BTC in Defi projects (Bridging and Swapping, the use of BTC as collateral, etc.) and the construction of L2-like solutions of the next generation on top of Bitcoin. And since our technology stack is not only connected to Bitcoin but also with other networks, Aurora and Near become the facilitators of using BTC in all other ecosystems.
BCN: When you consider how the internet has developed, from web1 to web2, how long do you think it would take before the majority of ordinary internet users become familiar with Web3?
As: I believe that within the next five years 80% of the world’s population will have a certain degree of exposure (perhaps indirectly) to crypto-assets. This does not mean that these people will have their basic sentences – a remnant from the technical past. But new forms of self -storage (keys for example) would result in the adoption of digital cash. We will forget the underlying infrastructure, such as or an app on Solana, Aurora or Near, just as we do not know which cloud provider is used by a certain website. The focus will shift from infrastructure to the products themselves. And communities will arise around products, not around platforms. The blockchain is an unstoppable revolution.