Every AI boom creates more costs. <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/cybersecurity" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Security gaps</a>, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">data restrictions</a>, and ballooning video files are the quiet expenses underneath the hood in the AI era.
Three startups, each led by a founder who spent years inside the affected industry, are turning those costs into businesses. All three build on Bittensor, a decentralized network where contributors compete to improve AI models.
Their founders told TheStreet&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Roundtable</a> what they are fixing and why.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/roundtable-100-analysts-move-super-league-71-places-lower" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Roundtable 100 analysts move Super League 71 places lower</a>
<h2 id="bitsec-security-that-keeps-pace-with-the-code">Bitsec: security that keeps pace with the code</h2>
John Yu has been programming professionally for more than 10 years and ran <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/explained/explained-what-is-a-smart-contract" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">smart contracts</a> serving millions of users a month.
Then one was <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/hacks" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">exploited</a> for $200,000. Over a weekend, he spent $1,000 on AI credits to see whether a model could find the same flaw. It did.
<blockquote>
 “$1,000 versus $200,000. There is a huge difference,” he said.
</blockquote>
That experiment became Bitsec.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/news/fbi-asks-defi-platforms-and-investors-to-audit-their-code" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Traditional security audits</a> cost at least $20,000 and take months, Bitsec scans code continuously and returns issues within days. Yu said its system found more vulnerabilities in a client’s code base than a newly released frontier model.
With <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/coinbase-changes-security-rewards-blames-ai" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">AI models growing better at finding flaw</a>s, his warning to teams without <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/innovation/common-defense-launches-ai-native-cybersecurity-company-built-to-stop-social-engineering-attacks" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">AI security</a> is blunt.
<blockquote>
 “2027 could be a bad year for you.”
</blockquote>
<h2 id="theminos-genetic-data-without-the-privacy-problem">TheMinos: genetic data without the privacy problem</h2>
Mamad Ahangari holds a PhD in genomics and has spent the past decade in genomics research. He knows the field’s central obstacle well: <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/healthcare" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">genetic data</a> is locked away for privacy reasons, so AI has had little to learn from.
TheMinos generates synthetic genomic data, which allows AI models to train without touching any real person’s records. The data can be tailored to specific diseases and specific regions of the genome.
Potential users include AI labs, drug developers, sequencing companies and universities. A second phase, launching soon, is meant to speed up data generation.
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</ul>
<h2 id="vidaio-smaller-files-same-picture">Vidaio: smaller files, same picture</h2>
Garreth Howells has spent 25 years in the video and film industry and spent parts of his career with <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/netflix" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Netflix</a>, Amazon, Disney and the BBC.
While launching a video on demand service in Africa, he could not get high quality files to phones over weak connections.
Vidaio handles compression, upscaling, restoration and dubbing. Its benchmarks show files about 43% smaller, a figure Howells says matters enormously once you consider the size of major content archives and what distributors pay in storage and bandwidth.
<blockquote>
 “To try and get that type of R&amp;D in a normal company, you’d have to spend millions,” he said. “we’re definitely ahead of the curve.”
</blockquote>
Proof of concept is under way, and after showcasing the technology at a major media tech show in Amsterdam.
These companies are helping their customers create cost efficiencies. Yu, Ahangari and Howells know those costs firsthand, and leveraging a <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/tag/depin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">decentralized network</a> gives them the computational power to address them.&nbsp;

How blockchain's are turning AI's quiet expenses into businesses

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TheStreet Roundtable

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