DFINITY CEO and Chief Scientist Dominic Williams has over 20 years of experience as a computer scientist and has been at the forefront of blockchain innovation. As the founding architect of the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), he leads one of the most academically advanced teams in the blockchain space, including the largest number of PhDs working on any network.
In an interview with CCN.com, Williams shared how the Internet Computer is changing the blockchain narrative from speculative assets to AI-driven usable infrastructure. As of March 26, ICP is ranked 34th on CoinMarketCap, with a market cap of approximately $3 billion.
In the interview, Williams explored a range of topics, including the 'self-writing' internet, where anyone can build full-stack applications just by chatting with AI.
ICP's unique approach: running AI models on-chain
Williams first emphasized a key technological milestone: ICP remains the only blockchain that runs AI models on-chain, rather than controlling them through token wrappers or cloud APIs.
'Many are talking about on-chain AI, but what they mean is AI running on Amazon Web Services, with a token somewhere on-chain.' Williams said, 'That's not what we're doing; we're running real AI models in the form of smart contracts.' This capability requires rethinking how blockchains work.
Williams explained that on ICP, AI models execute prompts in a decentralized environment without relying on centralized data centers, making them verifiable, censorship-resistant, and most importantly, trust-free.
Williams emphasized that this design lays the foundation for a new internet architecture where cloud providers no longer act as gatekeepers. Running AI on AWS or any centralized cloud provider introduces gatekeeping risks because it allows third parties to control the infrastructure, which ideally should be decentralized and censorship-resistant.
How self-writing applications will replace traditional development and consulting
Williams clearly stated that he believes AI is not just an upgrade, but a fundamental paradigm shift, 'Self-writing will fundamentally change our relationship with technology.' He said.
Today, developers write code, deploy it to servers, and maintain infrastructure; but according to Williams, tomorrow, users will simply describe to AI what they want, and the Internet Computer will build and host the application, providing users with a secure URL to access it.
This vision has been validated by Caffeine, an internal project of DFINITY that allows users to build applications in real-time through conversation, whether it's a private family photo-sharing app or enterprise-level customer relationship management (CRM) software. Williams explained that in about a year, users will be able to converse with AI, which will then build applications.
'Today's retail investors have no chance to create their own social media.' Williams said, 'But this will bring huge development, and self-writing makes this possible.'
He added that self-writing will allow companies to avoid hiring consultants, negotiating SaaS licenses, or even raising venture capital, 'If you're an entrepreneur, now you don't need funding; you just need to talk to AI.'
From AI-assisted to AI-native: The future of computing
Williams distinguished between today's AI-assisted development and future AI-native computing.
He introduced the term 'atmospheric coding' to describe the process by which artificial intelligence helps developers write code, allowing developers to prompt, review, and deploy results; however, with self-writing, the entire loop disappears.
It not only helps you write code faster, but it can also completely skip the coding step, Williams said.
In this new model, AI is not just assisting - it writes, deploys, and updates software itself. Williams believes this shift will condense the entire software development process into a simple chat interface, marking what he calls a 'generational shift in who develops software.'
Mitigating the risk of data loss in real-time AI coding: ICP's orthogonal persistence
One of the biggest risks of real-time AI coding is data loss, and updating backend logic without compromising state is very complex. Williams revealed that ICP addresses this challenge through a system called orthogonal persistence.
'The logic and data of the application merge into one.'
Orthogonal persistence means that state (data) is integrated into logic (code), allowing applications to be updated without the risk of corruption or downtime. Williams explained that this breakthrough enables AI to write and safely develop applications in production, even at 'chat speed.'
'AI may produce hallucinations, which is inevitable, but the platform must ensure data integrity.' Williams explained.
ICP's native architecture performs checks during the migration process to ensure that referenced data is not lost. This approach allows for continuous improvement without the backend vulnerabilities that often plague Web2 development.
How Chain Key enables AI applications to interact with multiple blockchains
In addition to building applications from scratch, Williams envisions self-writing applications that use ICP's chain key encryption technology to interact with any blockchain.
'The software does not hold private keys; the blockchain itself signs the transactions.'
This innovation allows smart contracts on the Internet Computer to generate transactions on other blockchains without storing private keys. Instead, the protocol uses distributed key sharing and continuous key re-sharing to ensure that no single entity can control the funds.
Williams believes this is a key driver for the 'world computer,' where all blockchains achieve unity through secure interoperability.
'Imagine you've built a meme coin interface or DeFi tool.' He said, 'The application can run on the Internet Computer but can talk directly to Solana or Bitcoin in the background using chain keys.'
The power of AI shifts the focus of Web3 from tokens to actual utility.
When discussing the lost potential of cryptocurrency, Williams candidly stated, 'Cryptocurrency is not a zero-sum game; it's a transformative technology for creating value.'
Williams explained that tribalism, token speculation, and short-term hype have hijacked the original intent of Web3, 'We chase speculative gold, NFTs, meme coins, but that's not the purpose of cryptocurrency.'
For Williams, the arrival of AI urgently requires the industry to readjust. By achieving mass-market usability, self-writing applications can ultimately bring real users into Web3, not just investors.
Williams believes 'cryptocurrency must be changed by force, and I think artificial intelligence is the force that will change cryptocurrency.' He continued to explain, 'AI will clear everything away; it will fundamentally change our view of Web3.'
'Artificial intelligence is a mandatory feature.' He said, 'Users don't care about the underlying principles of blockchain; they just want a usable tool.'
Williams believes that this utility-driven model will drive the adoption of cryptocurrency far beyond the current few cryptocurrency developers, 'Currently, there are 25,000 cryptocurrency developers, but there are 5 billion people with smartphones, and that's the real audience we're empowering.'
The IC content you care about
Technological advancements | Project information | Global events
Follow the IC Binance channel
Stay updated
