Cardano (ADA) and Midnight (NIGHT) founder Charles Hoskinson has cautioned academics and entrepreneurs that feeding their original ideas into artificial intelligence platforms could result in the loss of their intellectual property. He emphasized that users risk surrendering their creative concepts to centralized systems without receiving proper attribution or compensation.
At the same time, Hoskinson highlighted that Midnight, a privacy-focused blockchain, offers a way for individuals to harness the power of AI while retaining full control over their data, logs, and interactions.
OpenAI Declares Breakthrough on Navier-Stokes Equation
Last week, OpenAI announced that it had solved the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem — a nearly century-old mathematical question concerning the predictable behavior of fluids and gases.
The company stated that a team of AI agents derived the equation using a next-generation Generative Pre-Trained Transformer model more advanced than GPT-6 Astra. However, Jay Cummings, a mathematics professor, said he has been working on the problem for almost a year and appeared frustrated by OpenAI’s public announcement of the achievement.
Cummings’ post drew Hoskinson’s attention, prompting the Cardano and Midnight founder to voice his concerns about the potential consequences AI poses to original work and intellectual ownership.
How Midnight Addresses the AI Challenge for Researchers
According to Hoskinson, once individuals share their ideas with AI platforms, they have effectively handed over their work to the system. Academics and entrepreneurs who do so risk losing control of their concepts entirely.
The CEO of Input Output (IO) further stressed that AI developers such as OpenAI maintain complete access to every interaction users have with their platforms.
“At any time, OpenAI can go take it, and Sam Altman can make it his,” Hoskinson said.
Hoskinson revealed that Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused partner chain, offers a solution to this dilemma for researchers who incorporate AI into their work. He explained that the chain’s architecture combines zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) with a selective data disclosure mechanism, enabling users to maintain full control over their AI logs and interactions.
“So, why does Midnight fix this? Because it creates private environments for the AI and so they can’t read your logs,” Hoskinson pointed out. “You get all the upside of the inference, but you get none of the downsides. You don’t have to share your invention or have your intellectual property stolen from you.”
