Vitalik Buterin: Artificial Intelligence Will Be Able To Overcome Ethereum's Technical Risks

JAKARTA - Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said artificial intelligence (AI) could be key to tackling Ethereum's biggest "technical risk": bugs hidden in its complex codes.

In a post on February 18 on X, Buterin expressed his joy at checking AI-backed codes to identify and correct problematic codes on the Ethereum network, describing them as "the biggest technical risk" to the network.

Buterin's comments come as Ethereum approaches its anticipated implementation of the Dencun upgrade, which is currently scheduled to launch on March 13. Dencun was implemented on Goerli's testnet on January 17, but bugs in Prsym stopped the network from finishing on the testnet for four hours. Upgrade to the Ethereum network is critical to the blockchain's long-term roadmap.

However, not everyone agrees that AI is a reliable tool for detecting bugs in Ethereum-based codes.

In July 2023, OpenZeppelin conducted a series of experiments using OpenAI's GPT-4 to identify security concerns in its smart Solidity contract - the original language of the Ethereum code. During this experiment, GPT-4 successfully identified vulnerabilities in 20 of 28 challenges.

When the GPT-4 fails to identify weaknesses, it can often be forced to correct its mistakes quickly. However, at other times, OpenZeppelin found that AI had actually created vulnerabilities that had never existed before.

Similarly, Kang Li, head of security at CertiK, told Cointelegraph that using AI-powered tools - such as ChatGPT - in coding often creates more security problems than can be solved.

Overall, Li recommends that AI assistants should only be used as assistants to experienced developers, as they can help quickly explain to developers what that means by certain code lines.

"I think ChatGPT is a very helpful tool for people who do code analysis and reverse engineering. This is definitely a good assistant, and will improve our efficiency tremendously," said Li.

Although Buterin is generally optimistic about AI's future, he has previously warned developers to be careful when implementing AI with blockchain technology, especially when implementing it with "high risk" applications, such as oracles.