Computer Scientists Publish Landmark Survey on Crypto x AI Convergence

“Crypto x AI, AI x Crypto: A Survey,” released by The Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3), closely analyzes how the convergence of two emerging technologies—crypto and AI—can help or harm users.

NEW YORK, June 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over two dozen computer scientists and researchers from industry and academic institutions including Cornell Tech, Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, Technion, and Yale University, have released comprehensive research studying the intersection of crypto and AI.

The survey published by IC3 serves as a guide for future research and development, offering key insights into what crypto can do for AI and vice versa, enumerating open problems, identifying security risks, new areas of research, and common myths and misconceptions.

“There is a tremendous amount of material and papers in this space, both from the research community and industry, and it can be difficult to make sense of it all. Our goal with this survey was to highlight and summarize what we currently know, and perhaps more importantly, surface gaps that the research and practice communities can address,” said the survey’s co-editor Giulia Fanti.

This survey offers a clear-eyed view of the opportunities and challenges of crypto and AI. For example, AI could make blockchains more autonomous and intelligent, but could also introduce new forms of market abuse and collusion. Key findings include:

• AI can make crypto more “usable and flexible.” Models can help blockchains process real-world data, enhance analytics and fraud detection, improve smart contract security, and execute tasks based on high-level human objectives.
• AI-powered trading systems can enable collusion between autonomous agents and create unfair insider advantages through opaque strategies.
• Crypto tools and infrastructure can create more secure and trustworthy data pipelines for AI model training.
• Although there is much excitement about decentralizing AI pipelines—from training to inference to data sourcing and evaluation—there is relatively little quantitative comparison showing if and how decentralization helps end metrics, like costs to AI providers or users.

“Crypto is a 'hard' technology, built on cryptographic primitives with rigorous security properties and programs that enforce unambiguous results. AI is a 'soft' technology: No one fully understands or can fully trust the models on which it depends. Combining the two naively can be like soldering Jell-O,” said co-editor Ari Juels. “Combined well, though, crypto can channel AI’s fluid power into secure and reliable systems. Our survey's goal is to guide the community toward the areas of promise—and there are a few—within the crypto × AI vision.” 

The survey outlines areas for future research and development, acting as an essential guide for businesses and technologists. These insights are essential for organizations looking to capitalize on new economic opportunities and secure a competitive advantage, while actively identifying and mitigating emerging threats.

Go here to access the survey.

Authors: Sarah Allen (IC3, Flashbots); Pranay Anchuri (Offchain Labs); James Austgen (IC3, Cornell Tech); Maryam Bahrani (Ritual Labs); Roi Bar-Zur (IC3, Tel Aviv University); Samuel Breckenridge (IC3, Cornell Tech); Aaron Buchwald (Ava Labs); Christian Cachin (IC3, University of Bern); James Hsin-yu Chiang (IC3, ETH Zurich); Neil DeSilva (IC3); Ittay Eyal (IC3, Technion); Andrés Fábrega (IC3, Cornell Tech); Giulia Fanti (IC3, Carnegie Mellon University); Jared Fernandez (Carnegie Mellon University); Ari Juels (IC3, Cornell Tech); Andrew Miller (IC3, Teleport, FlashbotsX); Marwa Mouallem (IC3, Technion); Christian Sillaber (University of Bern); Dani Vilardell (IC3, Cornell Tech); Pramod Viswanath (Princeton University); Wenhao Wang (IC3, Yale University); Matt Weinberg (IC3, Princeton University); Sen Yang (IC3, Yale University); Jianzhu Yao (Princeton University); Fan Zhang (IC3, Yale University).

The Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) is a leading academic research consortium advancing the science and real-world applications of blockchain technology. Based at the Jacobs Institute at Cornell Tech in New York City, IC3 brings together interdisciplinary faculty and students from over a dozen top universities, with expertise spanning cryptography, AI, distributed systems, programming languages, game theory, economics, and technology policy. IC3 researchers and alumni have spawned blockchain unicorns, including Flashbots, Ava Labs, and Offchain Labs (Arbitrum), introduced new tools and concepts, and published research that has shaped industry practice and responsible technology governance. For more information, visit ic3research.org.

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