@SaharaLabsAI should have been one of the few projects we wanted to invest in but didn't over the past two years.
The reason we wanted to invest in the first half of last year was simple - after discussing a range of data annotation projects for 23-24, we ultimately didn't go through with it, mainly because most were the 'label to earn' series similar to Gamefi, which is quite difficult to cold start. On the other hand, Sahara's data annotation is one of the few projects with real customers and real revenue even in Web2, with clients like Microsoft and Amazon.
However, at the beginning of 25, I was somewhat worried about Sahara because the importance of traditional labor-intensive data annotation was declining, especially after the release of DeepSeek R1, which changed the game for data annotation.
Firstly, many next-generation large models use RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback), which requires 'small but high-quality data' instead of 'massive annotations.' In other words, you need a small number of experts in a field to help the AI grow, rather than a large group of ordinary people to help the AI recognize data.
Secondly, models like Deepseek R1 that are purely RL (Pure Reinforcement Learning) hardly require even 'small but high-quality data.' They only need an initial corpus dataset, and afterward, it's entirely based on a reward function for self-play or synthetic data to continuously evolve and optimize.
So at the beginning of the year, I paid attention to Sahara's developments again and was pleased to find that they didn't just stick to the data annotation track but extended several business lines around the core of data.
Sahara Data: Decentralized Data Market
Sahara Knowledge Agent: Personalized AI Agent
Sahara AI Marketplace: AI Asset Trading Platform
Sahara Blockchain: AI Public Chain Layer 1
Thus, both the narrative and the business model make much more sense, incorporating both Web2 and Web3. Creating their own chain aligns with @thecryptoskanda's logic of splitting the market, and currently, there seems to be a gap in the 'pure AI Layer 1' segment within the Crypto circle, or rather, a lack of a leading player -
Near? - This cannot be considered a pure AI Layer 1
Vana? - This is Layer 1 but more like a pure data chain
Bittensor? - This can be counted, but Bittensor is somewhat like BTC's POW, considered a 'POW AI Layer 1' leader
SaharaAI - has the potential to occupy the leading position in the 'POS AI Layer 1' segment.
Thus, for this ICO from @buidlpad, those who meet the conditions can choose to participate, although it's not cheap, but the potential leading player in the AI Layer 1 mega sector should logically not be valued just at this level in the long run.
