Why AI is so centralized: How it's built, who controls it, and what comes next

A few big companies control most of the infrastructure behind AI. Most people experience AI through a wide range of different apps that actually depend on a deeply centralized stack of data and compute. In this conversation, Ben Fielding and Harry Grieve — cofounders of decentralized machine learning protocol Gensyn — explain why this matters, and what it would take to rebuild AI as open infrastructure instead. From unused global compute to the philosophical implications of machine intelligence, they argue that the next evolution of AI must be owned, coordinated, and verified in a fundamentally different way. Highlights  00:00 – Intro  00:29 – The biggest misconception about AI infrastructure  01:20 – Why centralization in AI is a deeper problem than people realize  04:19 – Why AI needs crypto  05:51 – How AI models are trained  08:15 – The rise of autonomous AI agents with onchain identities  10:37 – Lightning round Ben Fielding on X: https://x.com/benfielding  Harry Grieve on X: https://x.com/harrygrieve  Gensyn on X: https://x.com/gensynai  Follow a16z crypto on X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto  Subscribe for more news and updates: a16zcrypto.substack.com   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.