In the latest episode of Nexus Chats, Alec James, Business Operations and Strategy Manager at Nexus, joined the show to share his perspective on Nexus’s growing ecosystem of AI partnerships — and how these collaborations are helping shape a more accountable digital future.
From AI doom to verifiable optimism
Alec opened the conversation by reflecting on his personal journey into the AI and cryptography space:
“I managed to fall into this interesting intersection that Nexus sits at between AI and cryptography from growing up reading about the probability of doom from the AI revolution. And right now we’re really living through that.”
His work at Nexus is driven by a desire to promote a more optimistic and secure trajectory for AI. Central to this is the role of verifiability.
“In my opinion, verifiability and cryptographic verifiability provide guardrails and transparency… Verifiable AI really is empowering for the world rather than restrictive.”
AI partnerships that build the future
Alec spotlighted three AI partners Nexus is especially excited about:
AI Seer: A fact-checking AI system named one of Time’s Best Inventions of 2024. Alec described the collaboration as a natural alignment: “They’re verifying the authenticity of information… those fact checks deserve a proof of provenance and authenticity in themselves—and that’s where Nexus comes in.”
Public AI: Enables selective, privacy-preserving data pooling for users. Nexus helps ensure that “data is inputted privately… allowing users to contribute to the AI revolution while retaining ownership and getting attribution and payment for that.”
Quill AI Network: Specializes in agent-based systems for blockchain security—a strong example of “AI for verification of systems.”
Why collaboration beats competition
When asked about navigating rapid change and uncertainty in frontier tech, Alec emphasized the collaborative nature of Web3:
“The Web3 sector is highly collaborative… We’re able to share ideas, exchange notes, feedback, product opinions, and basically grow and learn together.”
The Nexus value proposition
For potential partners, Alec starts with what sets Nexus apart:
“We have a global distributed network of around… 2.7 million users globally. That is really the value we use to bring two partners in working with us.”
Alec ended with a forward-looking vision for the AI x Web3 landscape:
“These tools allow much smaller teams to get global distribution, capital formation… I think we’ll see an explosion of experiments… and then a period of maturity and more positive regulation.”
