Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WHITE PAPER
July 2018
V 5.0 – July 4, 2018 www.mindfire.global
DECODING
THE MIND
FOR HUMANKIND
Πολλα τα δεινα, κουδεν ανϑρϖπου δεινοτερον πελει.
τουτο και πολιου περαν ποντου χειμεριϖι νοτϖι
χϖρει, περιβρυχιοισιν περϖν υπ∍ οιδμασιν;
Many wonders there be, but naught more stupendous than man;
Over the surging sea, with a whitening south wind wan,
Through the foam of the firth, man makes his way;
STRUCTURE
1. Executive Summary 3
2. Introduction & Problem Statement 5
2.1. AI, the final frontier for humankind 5
2.2. The 1st problem: We are looking in the wrong place 5
2.3. The 2nd problem: We are working in isolation 6
2.4. The 3rd problem: We don’t know what AI will be used for 6
2.5. Non-affiliated voices 7
3. Proposed solution & project description 8
3.1. Vision & Mission 8
3.2. Value Proposition: The Mindfire Foundation 8
3.3. Incentivized scientific collaboration 8
3.4. New generation transparent intellectual property management 9
3.5. Purpose: AI for the benefit of humankind 9
3.6. USPs: What makes Mindfire unique 10
4. How the solution works 11
4.1. The Mindfire Program 11
4.2. The Mindfire Talent Pool 13
4.3. The Mindfire Network 13
4.4. A patented blockchain integration 14
4.5. Governance: The Mindfire DAO 15
4.6. Role of the Mindfire advisory boards 17
5. The Mindfire Case 18
5.1. The market for AI 18
5.2. Intellectual Property Management 18
5.3. Associated Risks 18
6. Relevant Stakeholders 20
6.1. Talent: Shaping the future of AI 20
6.2. Investors: Fueling the Mindfire Rocket 20
6.3. Academia & Ethics: Shaping global expert opinions 20
6.4. Media & Public Interest: Educating the public 21
7. The Mindfire Token 22
7.1. The Mindfire Token 22
7.2. Token generation 23
7.3. Token distribution 24
7.4. Rewards Program 25
7.5. Talent Token allocation 25
7.6. Business Model & Revenue Sharing 26
8. Milestones & Fund allocation 28
8.1. Milestones 28
8.2. Fund Allocation 29
9. Team & Partners 31
9.1. The Founders 31
9.2. The Team 32
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1. Executive Summary
The purpose of the Mindfire Foundation: To decode the mind for humankind
Established in July 2017, the Mindfire Foundation is an independent Swiss non-profit organization
that strives to develop human-level Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the benefit of humankind. Human-
level AI has the potential to solve some of humanities greatest challenges, be it in health, education
or poverty. The implications of creating human-level AI are too monumental for humanity, society
and the global economy, to leave them in the hands of any specific corporation or country. The
purpose of the Mindfire Foundation is to ensure that the breakthrough in AI serves humanity and
society as a whole.
The driving force of Mindfire: A committed team of experts and thought leaders
The Mindfire Foundation was conceived by Swiss entrepreneur and AI pioneer Pascal Kaufmann,
who also founded Starmind, a company building human brain powered collaboration networks,
along with Prof. Christoph von der Malsburg, who has devoted his life to the elucidation of the
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function of the brain and Lukas Sieber, who has a background in political science and advises a
number of blockchain-related initiatives as well as US and Swiss/European based businesses.
The Mindfire Foundation is comprised of four advisory boards: An ethics, neuroscience, AI and talent
board. The ethics board is led by Barbara Bohr, who steers the development of Artificial Intelligence
towards the common good, supported by Joanna Bryson, as well as Luciano Floridi, advisor to
numerous tech companies and governments. Christoph von der Malsburg, advisor to the Human
Brain Project and one of the pioneers in the field of neural networks, leads the neuroscience board
and Rolf Pfeifer, Professor at OSAKA, JP and pioneer in embodied intelligence is part of the AI board.
Prof. Dr. Edy Portmann, a Swiss Post Professor of Computer Science at University of Fribourg, leads
the talent board. Other members of the AI board are Eberhard Schoeneburg, PwC's Lead AI advisor,
multiple award winning scientist and entrepreneur, and Andra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon
Valley Robotics and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker.
“We e are surrounded by hysteria about the future of AI and robotics. […]
The Singularity is not going to happen.”
Rodney Brooks, former Head MIT AI Lab, in technologyreview, 10/2017
“To get computers to think like humans, we need a new A.I. paradigm.”
Gary Marcus, former Head AI UBER, The New York Times, 07/2017
“We have pretty much no idea how the biological brain works.”
Andrew Ng, Head AI Baidu, in Quora on deep learning, 02/2016
“We Should Stop Using Brain Metaphors When We Talk About Computing.”
Michael I. Jordan, acc. To Science 2016 the most influential IT scientist, 10/2014
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The brain code can shape itself into hierarchical complex symbols to represent visual scenes
composed of objects consisting of familiar primitives that are constructed by local features. It enables
motion patterns obeying complex grammars, social constellations with sophisticated emotional
implications, and, of course, language in the proper sense, with all its intricate meaning, variations
and expressions. In order to achieve this breakthrough we first need to understand the roots of
intelligence: The brain and its inner workings. How can we develop Artificial Intelligence if we do
not know beforehand how intelligence actually works or what it consists of in all its facets? However,
most contemporary efforts around AI started as computers and are focused on computation. The
computational power of modern computers is astonishing and in this regard many systems are
superior to the human brain. Computation, however, is not the same as thinking. There is much more
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to the human brain than performing arithmetics and simply increasing the clock speed will not
bridge this gap. There has to be a fundamentally new approach for machines to start thinking.
1
Christoph Malsburg, AI: Tinned Human Thought? 2016 http://platonite.com/tinned-human-thought/
2
Nick Bostrom, Eliezer Yudkowsky, The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, 2014, https://intelligence.org/files/EthicsofAI.pdf
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Mindfire has designed a novel token ("Mindfire Token" or Token) that governs the interaction
between talents, researchers, investors and other involved parties. The Mindfire system inherently
ensures fair and transparent distribution of any revenue extracted from the generated intellectual
property. Tokenizing future monetization from licensing intellectual property allows revenues to
become not only immediately available but also tradable and transferable. The Mindfire Token
(patent pending) enables collaborative effort through a transparent, impartial reward system.
Moreover, the Mindfire missions are designed to unite individual expertise through a shared sense
of purpose. To facilitate this, Mindfire utilizes some of the latest tools including design thinking,
gamification and experimental psychology.
2.4. The 3rd problem: We don’t know what AI will be used for
The prospect of creating human-level thinking machines raises a number of ethical questions: 1)
How to create benevolent machines that don’t harm humans or other forms of life? 2) What is the
moral or societal status of machines? 3) Could unlocking the brain code lead to intelligent organisms
reprograming themselves?
Kurzweil (2005) proclaims that “intelligence is inherently impossible to control,” and that despite
any human attempts at taking precautions, “by definition […] intelligent entities have the cleverness
to easily overcome such barriers.” Assuming that human-level AI is not only bright, but has
unhindered access to its own source code, implies that it can rewrite itself to anything it wants to be.
Yet it does not necessarily follow that the AI desires to rewrite itself to a hostile form.
However, ethical questions regarding the interaction between organic and artificial life should not
be our only concern. We doubt that it is in our collective best interest to put the very essence of our
species, i.e., our creativity, our intelligence, our ability to think critically, our emotional capacity for
empathy and our self-consciousness in the hands of any single government or tech company. Note
that we don’t want to prevent corporations from owning intellectual property or filing patents, yet
the control over the very essence of what constitutes a human being should not lie with a single group
of interest, be it a company or a country. Mindfire’s voting system coupled with its global talent pool
ensures that this power — and the accompanying responsibility — is distributed in a wide network
of people and institutions.
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When asked what he thinks of deep learning, Andrew Ng, former leader of Baidu’s AI Group and co-
founder of the Google Brain Project said: “[…] Deep Learning has also been overhyped. Because
neural networks are very technical and hard to explain, many of us used to explain it by drawing an
analogy to the human brain. But we have pretty much no idea how the biological brain works.
UC Berkeley's Michael Jordan calls deep learning a "cartoon" of the biological brain - a vastly
oversimplified version of something we don't even understand. Despite the media hype, we're
nowhere near being able to build human-level intelligence. Because we fundamentally don't know
how the brain works, attempts to blindly replicate what little we know in a computer also has not
resulted in particularly useful AI systems. Instead, the most effective deep learning work today has
made its progress by drawing from countless cases and at most a touch of biological inspiration.
Concretely, if you hear someone say “The brain does X. My system also does X. Thus we’re on a path
to building the brain”, Andrew Ng’s advice is to be very cautious. 3
Rodney Brooks, the former director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, founder and former CTO of iRobot and co-Founder, Chairman and CTO of Rethink
Robotics mentions the hysteria about the future of AI and robotics. He is points out in a recent
interview end of 2017, that the popular Singularity is not going to happen and that the concept as
such is a major road block. The brain is not a computer and does not work like a computer.
Geoffrey Hinton, who joined the Google AI team and who is a British cognitive psychologist and
computer scientist, most noted for his work on artificial neural networks, publicly stated in Axios,
09/2017, that “we need to start all over”, and that he wishes that his students forgot about all he said
and came up with novel ideas.
Gary Marcus, former Head AI UBER, who is a research psychologist focusing on language, biology,
and the mind at New York University published in the The New York Times in 07/2017, that an
entirely new AI paradigm is needed to teach computers to think like humans.
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Encouraging collaboration, investment, and research in any scientific endeavor can be a difficult task.
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The root of the problem is control: control by investors, researchers and stakeholders over any
products or property that is conceived as a result of their involvement (e.g. intellectual property).
This issue can be addressed by providing investors, researchers, and stakeholders with incentives to
control scientific ventures and create a community of interest. This community goes beyond the
individual and might also include institutions such as universities and other research institutions.
Problems of efficiency can be countered by creating an open and decentralized scientific ecosystem
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based on blockchain technology. An additional factor is to extend the network broadly to include
human knowledge and discovery, far beyond algorithms or processing power. Collaboration is the
backbone of progress and innovation, but collaboration in centralized silos is limiting. Mindfire is
designed around a blockchain-based Token to encourage and incentivize competition, collaboration
and innovation. Through smart contracts the Mindfire platform creates a community of innovators:
one that gives Mindfire tokens ("Mindfire Tokens") where contributions to the Mindfire Missions are
made.
During all Mindfire Missions, audio and video recordings as well as depictions of drawings, writings,
calculations, computer programs and other scientific assets will be certified on a blockchain to prove
ownership, existence and integrity of ideas. This data constitutes an underlying value for the
Mindfire Token and ensures transparency and fairness. The data will not be stored on the blockchain.
Instead, a hash of the data is used as a reference to data that is stored in a separate system.
a) Talents can provide a reference to data that they have generated during a Mission and add
them to the smart contract.
b) The Mindfire Foundation can also reference data with the smart contract.
c) Referencing of data is performed via hashes, e.g. large datasets can be stored privately by the
Mindfire Foundation, hashed and the hash is stored in the smart contract.
The Mindfire Foundation has named Bernstein Technologies GmbH4 as a preferred provider to create
a digital trail of records of Mindfire’s innovation processes using blockchain technology.
healthcare, streamline energy-usage and waste-management, and outwit poachers and illegal
fishing.
4
https://www.bernstein.io
5
UN News, UN artificial intelligence summit aims to tackle poverty, humanity's 'grand challenges', 2017, https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/06/558962-
un-artificial-intelligence-summit-aims-tackle-poverty-humanitys-grand
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Starting in May 2018, a selected number of talents gather in Davos, Switzerland, to participate in
Mindfire Mission 1. Mindfire initiates herewith the quest to “crack the brain code” by means of a
dedicated program geared towards creating human-level AI. Each Mission builds on the findings of
the previous Mission. Mindfire Missions will be structured along key AI and neuroscience research
topics, such as cellular automata, artificial organisms, artificial neural networks, robotics, quantum
electronics and alternative approaches to AI. Detailing each step from a scientific viewpoint would
be beyond the scope of this whitepaper. The following relevant sources underlie the first 3 missions
comprising the outlined stages 1 & 2 (selection):
Steels, Luc; Brooks, Rodney, eds. (1995), ”The Artificial Life Route to Artificial Intelligence:
Building Embodied, Situated Agents”, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Pfeifer, Rolf; Scheier, Christian, eds. (2001), “Understanding Intelligence”, MIT Press
O'Regan, J. K. (1992), “Solving the "real" mysteries of visual perception: the world as an
outside memory.”, Canadian Journal of Psychology, 46, 461-88.
O’Regan, J. K., & Noë, A. (2001), “A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness”,
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(5), 883–917.
Malsburg, C.vd. (2018), “The Neural Code Roadblock: On the way to AI”,
https://platonite.com/the-neural-code-roadblock-on-the-way-to-ai/
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Figure 1: Mindfire program and mission overview as of 20.04.2018. In allusion to the Saturn-V rocket of the moon-landing program of the
60ties, 7 stages are conceptualized and dedicated to the creation of human-level AI. 10 Missions are planned as of today, while the dates
of the first 2 Mission dedicated to building a carrier system for AI are known. The longer the time horizon, the higher the chances that the
scope of missions will be re-planned, delayed or altered completely. Each of the 7 stages ground on specific approaches in AI. This
constitutes one of many possible strategies to create human-level AI. The entire Mission planning will be challenged and refined in Mission-
1, the main bulk of work and progress occurs in between the missions.
During the course of the Mindfire Missions, Mindfire Mission control will focus efforts on
incrementally uncovering the fundamental principles of intelligence. Based on the outcome of this
ambitious approach, the Mindfire program will not only further a better understanding of human
intelligence, it will also be able to build it artificially, i.e., create human-level Artificial Intelligence.
Mindfire does not attempt to copy human brains but rather focuses on extracting the principles by
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Mindfire's scientific advisory boards will define the goal of each Mission and support the talents
throughout. Leading AI researchers and innovation coaches will act as mentors. There will be no
hierarchies, only a shared sense of purpose. Mindfire’s ethics advisory board advises on how all
findings may be used in the interest of humanity and pursue sustainable development goals.
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The Mindfire Missions will be conducted in Davos, Switzerland. Davos is not only the home of the
World Economic Forum (WEF) for almost 50 years, it is also one of the most advanced regions in the
Swiss alps featuring state of the art communication and internet technologies, hosting a number of
companies, infrastructure projects and global initiatives shaping the world. The city of Davos has
endorsed Mindfire early on by joining as one of the first partners of the Mindfire program.
Step-2: Academic background and personal views on AI - A resume is submitted along with
an essay comprised of approx. 2’500 words on 3 given topics.
Step-3: Diversity and communication skills - Talents are invited for a 1:1 video interview. A
set of questions are asked by an AI and a talent expert. Selection criteria are: creative
thinking and innovation capacity. Subsequently, the talent is either directly admitted to the
current Mindfire Mission or is added to the Mindfire talent pool to be considered for future
Missions. Talents are key to the success of Mindfire, and they will be selected based on their
potential contribution to the mission. Mindfire is open to all interested candidates,
irrespective of academic credentials, background, race, and ethnicity. Travel,
accommodation and all activities are fully covered by the Mindfire Foundation. Talents will
be rewarded with Mindfire Tokens. The goal is to recruit a talent pool comprised of several
thousand selected talents from which, depending on the current Mission and challenge at
hand, most suitable profiles can be recruited at any time. Participants are required to
consent to a code of conduct in order to be admitted to a Mindfire Mission. Each participant
is rewarded with a certificate and a Mindfire medal.
Mindfire has received several hundred applications from every continent in the world. Applicants
range from anywhere between 14 and 80 years old. Portraits of selected Mindfire talents can be
viewed here8.
accessible to all Mindfire talents. The findings of Mindfire Missions will be enhanced, further
developed or challenged in between of Mindfire Missions through an open research and idea
network, the Mindfire network9 (the "Mindfire Network", see figure 2).
8
https://mindfire.global/category/talent/
9
https://network.mindfire.global/
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In November 2017, the Mindfire Foundation successfully filed the patent "Cryptographic Token-
Based System Configured To Manage Proposed Events And Actions" in the United States of America
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10
Mindfire partners with Starmind, one of the leading AI tech collaboration companies: http://www.starmind.com/technology
11
Patent filed & pending
12
Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World, Don Tapscott, 2016
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associated with the Mindfire Foundation, wherein a set of cryptographic, blockchain-based tokens
(Mindfire Tokens) are allocated to a set of token holders (talents and investors) and represent voting
rights and distribution rights associated with the Mindfire Foundation.
The system may be programmatically implemented by computer code to control actions with respect
to a set of intellectual property assets. The role of the Foundation may be defined based on one or
more blockchain-based smart-contracts. Each smart contract may include computer code to
implement rules that control generation and allocation of the cryptographic tokens (Mindfire
Tokens), and manage proposals comprising a proposed event or action related to the assets, the
tokens and/or the Mindfire Foundation. According to one feature of the invention, in response to
receipt of proposal information defining a valid proposal, the system is configured to authorize a vote
of the Token entitled persons (talents and investors, also referred as "Token holders"), whether to
implement the proposal and actions associated with it. To what extent the patent will be licensed to
other research institutions, corporations or organizations and under what conditions, will be
decided by the token holders.
a. Proposals
Any Mindfire Token holder
or group of Mindfire Token
holders holding at least 1%
of the total number of
Mindfire Tokens can make
a proposal. In order to
show some “skin in the
game” they have to submit
at least 0.01% of all
existing Mindfire Tokens to
the DAO (the exact
percentage cost of
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submitting a proposal can Figure 3: Mindfire DAO proposal-vote-action process, handing in proposal, whitelist checking, two
voting events, the commercialization of intellectual property as well as the token and talent token
be updated by the distribution.
Foundation). These 0.01%
of the total supply of Mindfire Tokens are being automatically distributed by the smart contract to
talents (upon completion of the talent voting phase) if the proposal is accepted . If the proposal is
being rejected, the Mindfire Tokens will be burned (unspendable and thus may increase the value of
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everyone’s Mindfire Token holdings by reducing the total supply). The fundamental types of
proposal are: the total supply of Mindfire Tokens are being distributed to talents (upon completion
of the talent voting phase) if the proposal is accepted and does contain a token allocation for talents,
the Mindfire Foundation if the proposal is accepted and no talent tokens are to be distributed. If the
proposal is being rejected, the Mindfire Tokens will be burned (unspendable and thus increasing the
value of everyone’s Mindfire Token holdings by reducing the total supply). The fundamental type of
proposal is:
- Intellectual Property action: Another form of proposal that undergoes the same proposal-
whitelist-vote process is the governance of intellectual property: E.g., a proposal to sell (parts of
or entire) intellectual property of some specific project or manage intellectual property
otherwise (e.g. give exclusive usage rights, settle IP dispute, etc.). A proposal comprises:
Link to proposal (e.g. URL to PDF of proposal document)
Hash of proposal
Mindfire Token allocation (both could also be zero):
o For sponsor: directly allocated as soon as proposal is approved
o For talents: upon end of voting period
o Time at which voting for talents’ token allocation starts
Figure 4: The Process of monetizing the Intellectual Property in steps 1 to 5 according to sequence.
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b. Whitelisting
A valid proposal must be in line with the Mindfire Foundations’ by-laws. This will be enforced by
vote by the ethics board of the Foundation. A freshly submitted proposal is “pending” until the board
of the Mindfire Foundation has casted a vote. The proposal can then be in a “whitelisted” or “rejected”
state. Even rejected proposals will be visible on the blockchain in order to provide transparency over
the actions of the ethics board.
c. Voting on Proposals
All Token holders can cast a binary vote on whitelisted proposals (yes/no). The number of votes that
a Mindfire Token holder can give is proportional to their respective Mindfire Token balance.
Proposals can be voted on for a duration to be determined by the community. The faith of the
proposal is governed by a simple majority rule: A proposal is approved if more than or equal to half
of all casted votes are in its favor, otherwise it is rejected.
They supply the Mindfire foundation and all affiliated organs with expert advice on emerging
technologies, scientific advances, ethical frameworks, educational trends. They help to manage the
reputation and to position the foundation and the Mindfire program towards all stakeholder groups
and aim at assuring the fulfillment of the foundation’s purpose and mission, namely to pave the way
to a breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence.
The Mindfire advisory board is held ‘light touch’ in terms of processes. There is no need for elections,
term limits, committee structures or extensive disclosure of the advisory board’s role, remuneration
or performance. They are free to concentrate their energies on their core role, namely to complement
the main board by providing specialist experience, knowledge and contacts not readily available
elsewhere.
Mindfire's advisory board is an amalgam of individuals that are there fundamentally to provide
advisory services. The advisory board gives focus and challenges regarding work being done in the
foundation, thus avoiding groupthink and giving direction on big- picture issues.
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Perhaps more importantly, such systems will be applicable to pressing global issues such as climate
change, food security, sustainable energy and global health crises. The economic benefit of a solution
to one of these problems is hardly quantifiable. It is certain, however, that a breakthrough in human-
level Artificial Intelligence will literally affect all aspects of human life and whoever holds the
corresponding intellectual property will have an immense economic advantage.
Making sure that the intellectual property generated at Mindfire Missions is owned by the Mindfire
Foundation, is a top priorities. To ensure this, talents will have to sign an agreement to cede their
personal rights to intellectual property upon admission to any Mindfire Mission. Talents associated
13Jacques Bughin, Eric Hazan, Sree Ramaswamy, Michael Chui, Tera Allas, Peter Dahlström, Nicolaus Henke, and Monica, Trench How artificial intelligence
can deliver real value to companies, 2017 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/how-artificial-intelligence-can-
deliver-real-value-to-companies
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with universities and/or corporations will have to present written consensus that the intellectual
property generated during Mindfire Missions will belong to the Mindfire Foundation. Furthermore,
external experts will create awareness related to intellectual property commercialization and attend
the Missions in order to take note when new intellectual property is generated.
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6. Relevant Stakeholders
We believe in the power of collective intelligence and in connecting diverse disciplines to collaborate
on the Mindfire Missions. Talents will be rewarded through our innovative merit based system,
according to the contribution of each talent. This allows contributors to be part of a unique journey
during which we collectively achieve more than we could individually, while every talent’s
appropriate reward is ensured by a fair and transparent process.
On the path to reaching a significant breakthrough regarding human-level AI, the different Mindfire
Missions will generate intellectual property, which can and will be monetized in accordance to the
ethics board. The market for AI technology and applications is expected to explode in the coming
years, potentially generating outstanding results for everyone involved. The unique approach of
Mindfire towards addressing this challenge presents an opportunity to benefit from the race towards
AI.
Beyond the funding provided by investors in exchange for Mindfire Tokens during the ITO, Mindfire
is also open to attract corporate and non-corporate sponsors. The uniqueness of the Mindfire vision
and approach, has already gained the financial and overall support, of some of Swiss based globally
active corporations, a number of Swiss business associations as well as some Swiss cantons.
Sponsors will eventually benefit from the exchange with the Mindfire Talent Network, as well as from
the bridge between business and academia that Mindfire will create.
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and exploited following the ethical principles underlying the Mindfire Foundation: Human-level AI
for the benefit of humankind.
The ties to the world of academia are essential. Also in this context, the philosophy of Mindfire is one
of collaboration and collective efforts, as opposed to a race against each other. Research, knowledge,
talent and academic institutions are invited to support all ongoing Mindfire efforts across the globe
in an unprecedented collaborative effort.
Mindfire will provide information and education programs to the general public, mostly transported
through popular media outlets. There are two main drivers and advantages associated: First, it will
reduce the fears and misconceptions around AI in the general population, hence facilitating adoption
by reducing acceptance barriers. Secondly, The Mindfire Foundation will be positioned as expert
thought leader in the context of AI, potentially encouraging further talents to join Mindfire.
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Investors will receive tokens during the ITO and talents will receive tokens upon completion of a
Mission. MFT are intended for Missions 1-10 and will be minted one-off. Subject permissibility under
applicable law, the Foundation reserves the right to issue additional tokens similar to MFT in the
future.
Due to national legislation in certain jurisdictions applicable to talents, Mindfire may be prohibited
from issuing tokens or making them tradable (e.g. the US). If so, Mindfire will not be able to issue
tokens to these talents or has to limit the transferability of the tokens. In any case, Mindfire is trying
to ensure that the talents concerned can still exercise their participation and voting rights. A transfer
of these rights would then only be possible, however, through a written application to Mindfire and
if an exceptional situation exists (in particular death of the talent; bankruptcy of talent or other valid
reasons). Whether an exceptional situation exists is at Mindfire's sole discretion.
Figure 6: Mindfire Token Offering and process flow. Listed are the
talents and investors as the main Mindfire Token holders
(bottom left), each contributing either know-how, intellectual
property or cash through token sales. The Mindfire Foundation
will commercialize the accrued intellectual property based on
voting of the Mindfire Token holders. On the right hand pane the
exchange between intellectual property licensing rights and
payments towards the commercialization is shown.
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Overview
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Token Sale
50% of the total amount of Mindfire Tokens created will be available during the private, pre-sale and
the main sale periods. 18.5% of the Tokens will be assigned to an internal Talent fund, in order to
create a reward pool for the Mindfire talents and contributors. 15% of the Tokens will be assigned
to the Mindfire Foundation for future financing of Mindfire Missions and operations. 7% of the tokens
will go to our partners and advisers, including legal, marketing and technical supporters, to
compensate them for their efforts. Partners. 8% of the Tokens will be rewarded to the founders and
the team. 1.5% of the total amount of the Tokens will be provided to the Bounty program.
The Mindfire Foundation will offer different promotion programs and has reserved 2% of the total
Mindfire Tokens sold during the crowdsale. All of these MFT tokens will be fully distributed among
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the Mindfire bounty campaign participants. As the total amount of participants is unknown, the
Mindfire token will be allocated, based on a predetermined amount for each bounty campaign.
Campaign Amount
Signature 20%
Bonus 10%
Total 100%
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Example: Researchers Alice, Bob, Charlie and Dave are participating at a Mission and are voting for
each other’s contributions as follows:
Such voting models are susceptible to collusion, however: Bob and Charlie could have agreed on
voting each other highly despite not doing a lot of work. If the Mindfire Foundation (and other
proposers) observes this, they might choose to not invite the colluders or to reduce the allocation of
the voting tokens that they give them (e.g. if they have reason to believe that Bob and Charlie colluded
then they might give them each half the amount of voting tokens that all other participants get). In
addition, the Mindfire Foundation might choose to run a different Token allocation mechanism at its
sole discretion.
The same mechanism of Token allocation applies to contributions through the Mindfire Network14
in between of Missions. The platform will incentivize positive contributions to Mindfire by awarding
Tokens through a voting mechanism of Token holders.
Mindfire Token holders participate in the revenues arising out of the commercialization of the
intellectual property created within the Mindfire framework including Mindfire Missions and the
Mindfire Global Network. The Tokens are subject to the Token Sale Terms and Conditions that form
a valid contract. Therein the Foundation is bound to commercialize all intellectual property only
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according to the vote of the Token holders and to distribute 80% of the revenue to the Tokens
holders. The Mindfire Foundation retains 20% of the revenue allowing the Foundation to sustain
itself.
14
https://network.mindfire.global/
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Mindfire Token holders take part in the revenues generated from the commercialization of the
intellectual property once a year and Mindfire Token holders will have 365 days to claim their
fraction of proceeds via a separate revenue distribution smart contract in Ether or a stable token
(e.g. DAI).
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8.1. Milestones
The Mindfire team is currently working on engineering the alpha version of the Mindfire Mission and
engaging in detailed discussions with advisors, talents and a range or partners. What follows is a
rough sketch indicating some of the key points involved. 2018 is covered in more depth; and the
years 2019-2021 are more roughly outlined.
The core business model of the Mindfire Foundation is to serve as an incentive platform for Mindfire
talents and to contribute towards the understanding of the principles of human intelligence. Toward
this end, it is not the purpose of the Foundation to control which scientific directions talents and
Mindfire Missions take. However, in the initial phase of the network’s operation, while the
Foundation is playing a guiding role, it will be appropriate for the Foundation to differentially focus
its Missions on particular focus areas, with the goal of ensuring that Mindfire reaches its goals in
critical scientific vertical areas.
June-October 2018 Organize Mindfire Mission Efforts and Define Infrastructure Projects
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November 2018 Launch of Token Sale & Launch of Mindfire Main Network
The ITO for the MFT token will start in November 2018. MFT holders
will be eligible to vote on the Mindfire platform.
November 2018 Launch of Mission-2 in Davos, Switzerland
Uniting the top minds across various fields of science in Davos to
collectively unlock the principles of human intelligence. Mission-2 will
focus on the creation of an artificial species (see figure 1).
Q1 2019 First Draft of AI Gold Standard & Announcement of new Collaborations
and Partnerships
The Mindfire Foundation will announce new partnerships and
collaborations.
May 2019 Launch of Mission-3 in Davos, Switzerland
Mission-3 focuses on tackling the neural code by learning from
sensory information from a new generation autonomous robot.
Q2 2019 First Prototype of Autonomous Organisms (Mindfire Platform)
Mission-4 focuses on specific communication forms that are able to
extract meaning based on the Neural Code. Ontogenic learning, ie
unconscious learning during life-time and growth is developed.
November 2019 Launch of Mission-4 in Davos, Switzerland
Mission-4 focuses on specific communication forms that are able to
extract meaning based on the Neural Code. Ontogenic learning, ie
unconscious learning during life-time and growth is developed.
May 2020 Launch of Mission-5 in Davos, Switzerland
Mission-5 focuses on underlying genetic like systems that interact
with short-term neural learning framework. Genetic learning module
acts on different time scale and adjusts ontogenetic learning and
encodes it.
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* Note that the Mindfire Foundation pays the key operational team members in Mindfire Tokens
Above listed are the cornerstones of the detailed budget (available upon request). Factoring in a 15%
planning buffer, the overall target budget amounts to CHF: 40.0mio
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Founder and board member: Prof. Christoph von der Malsburg has devoted
his life to the elucidation of the function of the brain. He did research at
CERN in Geneva and the Max-Planck-Institute for Neuroscience and he was
appointed as professor of computer science and systems biophysics in Los
Angeles, USA and Bochum, Germany. He has co-founded two successful
companies based on his theory of the visual system and received numerous
international awards. Von der Malsburg headed the European Neural
Network Society and is one of the fathers of computer vision and self-
organizing neural networks. He has been appointed recently as strategic
and technical advisor to the European Human Brain Project. LinkedIn
Lukas Sieber
acts as Executive Director North America of Greater Zurich Area (GZA), the
official investment support agency of Zurich and surrounding areas.
Additionally, he advises a number of blockchain-related initiatives and
advises US and Swiss/European based businesses. LinkedIn
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CFO COO
Carlo Schmid
Relationship Manager
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Sebastian Bürgel is the CTO and Co-Founder of Validity Labs. He received his PhD
from ETH Zurich before turning his insatiable curiosity and energy to the world of
blockchain and cryptocurrencies. His previous project, SONECT, a blockchain-
based mobile cash withdrawal solution, attracted the interest one of Switzerland’s
largest financial institutions, PostFinance. A regular speaker at major blockchain
conferences, Bürgel is also one of the world’s top smart contract and Solidity
developers. His work includes building applications for a wide range of industries
such as insurance, real estate, banking and others.
LinkedIn
Andre Wolke
André Wolke is the CEO & Co-Founder of Validity Labs, Founder of Validity
Research as well as Founder of the Blockchain & Internet of Things Association
(BIOTS). He has a wealth of experience in bridging industries and bringing
together technology providers, researchers, academics and students in a global
community of pioneers to build the future of distributed-ledger technology. He is
also a top technology influencer, founding member of Chief Digital Community,
mentor for the Kickstarter Accelerator program and host of the largest blockchain
meetup in Switzerland. LinkedIn
Ben Goertzel
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Chair Advisory Board, Head of the Ethics Board: Barbara Bohr is a lecturer of
communication with a focus on technical and financial topics. As head of Mindfire’s
Ethics Advisory Board she also serves as communication liaison between the
foundation’s board of directors, its operational leadership team and the other
advisory board members. She is committed to steer the development of Artificial
Intelligence towards the common good. Her professional experience comprises
leadership roles in software product development, communications and higher
education.She holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics and Literature from Mainz
University/Germany. LinkedIn.
Joanna J. Bryson
Ethics Board member: Prof. Dr. Joanna Bryson has a PhD from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, where she worked with Rodney Brooks and
other pioneers in the field of AI. Joanna Bryson focuses on understanding natural
intelligence by Artificial Intelligence. Joanna Bryson’s research covers topics
ranging from AI, robot ethics, and on to human cooperation. Bryson's first degree
is in behavioral science from Chicago, holding an MSc in AI and an MPhil in
psychology from Edinburgh. She has held various visiting academic positions such
as with Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and the Department
of Anthropology in Oxford. Joanna Bryson is one of the global leaders in robot
ethics and a frequent speaker and advisor to various organizations. LinkedIn
Luciano Floridi
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Eberhard Schoneburg
AI Board member: Prof. Dr. Rolf Pfeifer is a visiting professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, CHN and until 04/2017 he was a specially appointed professor at
Osaka University, JP. Pfeifer was director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
in Zurich where he conducted pioneering work in embodied cognition,
autonomous agents, soft and humanoid robotics. Pfeifer worked as a visiting
professor at the Free University of Brussels, the MIT Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in San Diego, and the Sony
Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, he was elected "21st Century COE
Professor, Information Science and Technology" at the University of Tokyo for
2003/2004, from where he held the first global, fully interactive,
videoconferencing-based AI lecture series. Rolf Pfeifer is the author of the
standard work on AI “How the body shapes the way we think”. LinkedIn
Andra Keay
AI Board member: Andra Keay is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics,
an industry group supporting innovation and commercialization of robotics
technologies. Andra is also founder of Robot Launch, global robotics startup
competition, cofounder of Robot Garden hackerspace, mentor at hardware
accelerators, startup advisor and investor, with a strong interest in
commercializing socially positive robotics and AI, shared on "The Robot State"
site.. Andra cofounded Robohub, the global robotics research news site, building
on her background in film, television and media production, internet and
computing technologies, with degrees in Interaction, Communication and
Human/Robot Cultural Studies and was selected as an HRI Pioneer in 2010. Andra
also cofounded Robot Garden, a robotics makerspace and teaches Interaction
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Edy Portmann
Head of the Talents Board: Prof. Dr. Edy Portmann is Swiss Post Professor of
Computer Science at University of Fribourg. His transdisciplinary research
focuses on cognitive computing and its application to cities. Portmann is engaged
in intelligently managing today's information overload. For this purpose, he uses
a triangulation of methods, applications and tools originating mainly from
computer and information science, as well as business and economics and social
sciences. He studied information systems, business as well as economics and,
later, got a doctorate in computer science. Among others, he worked for Swisscom,
PwC and EY. In addition, Edy Portmann was also a researcher at the universities
of Singapore, Berkeley and Bern. LinkedIn
Don Berry
Andreas Staub
Talent Board member: Andreas Staub is a graduate of the University of Zurich and
has more than 15 years of management experience in banking. He is lecturer and
official examiner in several subjects (retail banking, strategy, corporate
governance, among others) at several institutes of higher learning (Swiss Finance
Institute, IFZ Financial Services Zug). His grounded theoretical knowledge does not
prevent him from distinguishing himself in practice in project and program
structures, thanks to his proven ability to realize his plans. He is managing partner
and Chief Communication & Business Development Officer of FehrAdvice &
Partners AG. LinkedIn
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9.6. Ambassadors
Gerry Hofstetter
Mindfire Ambassador Gerry Hofstetter, born in 1962, lives and works in Zumikon,
Switzerland. In 1995 the Swiss artist began an international company, “Hofstetter
Marketing,” which specializes in light art, communications, events, design and film
productions. Since 1999, Hofstetter has been transforming buildings, monuments,
and natural landscapes throughout the world into temporary works of art with his
spectacular light art projections.
Gerry Hofstetter travels all over the world to implement light art projects of all
sizes. His creativity is a guarantee that clients will have their message in both the
media and the public consciousness. With his illuminations, Hofstetter encourages the beholder to contemplate
how our planet can develop in an environmentally-friendly, sustainable manner.
Matt Rizzetta
Mindfire Ambassador Matt Rizzetta has served as CEO since N6A’s inception. Under
his leadership, N6A has been ranked as the #1 fastest-growing agency in the United
States in its revenue category by O’Dwyers, as well one of the 50 most powerful
agencies in the United States by the Observer. Matt has been instrumental in
creating N6A’s “Compete and Care” culture and “Embrace the Pace” atmosphere,
which have been lauded as the most rewarding, collaborative and unique in the
agency world by Forbes, Monster.com, New York Post, Chief Learning Office
Magazine, Entrepreneur, and others. N6A was named a finalist for Digiday’s Most
Innovative Culture Award, and as a winner of PRWeek’s Best Places to Work. Matt serves on the Alumni Board
of Directors at his alma mater Iona College, and resides in Westchester County, NY, with his wife and three
daughters.
Aileen Zumstein
moderator for over twenty years and leads audiences through conferences and
events while performing in several languages. Prior, she worked in the financial industry, in radio journalism
and corporate communications in SME as well as in worldwide corporations. She has a degree in
Communications Science, Business Administration and Law of Labor from the University of Zurich.
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9.7. Supporters
Mindfire is supported by various Governments of Swiss cantons and cities, globally leading corporate
players, Switzerland’s largest universities and most important business associations.
The list is growing daily, with supporters eager to participate and be involved in the Mindfire
program.
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This White Paper is provided by Mindfire Foundation for informational purposes only. Nothing in
this White Paper shall be construed as an offer to sell or buy securities in any jurisdiction, or a
solicitation for investment, or an investment advice. The White Paper does not regulate any sale and
purchase of Mindfire Tokens (as referred to in the White Paper). The purchase of Mindfire Tokens is
subject to the Token Sale Terms and Conditions.
This White Paper describes the current vision of Mindfire Foundation. While we intend to attempt to
realize this vision, please recognize that it is dependent on quite a number of factors and subject to
quite a number of risks. It is entirely possible that the realization of the vision of Mindfire Foundation
will be impossible, or that only a portion thereof will be realized. We do not guarantee or warrant
any of the statements in this White Paper, because they are based on our current beliefs, expectations
and assumptions, about which there can be no assurance due to various anticipated and
unanticipated events that may occur. Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and other aspects of the
technology used by Mindfire Foundation is in its infancy and will be subject to many challenges,
competition and a changing environment. We will try to update our community as things grow and
change, but undertake no obligation to do so. The Mindfire mission is a very ambitious undertaking
that may never succeed.
Due to the retrospective nature of regulatory action or guidance, we can make no guarantees
regarding the legality of the Mindfire Token and the Mindfire Token launch in any given jurisdiction.
Mindfire Tokens may not be available in certain countries. Mindfire Tokens are participation rights
tokens associated with certain voting rights. Mindfire Tokens are non-refundable and are not for
speculative investment. No promises of future performance or value are or will be made with respect
to Mindfire Tokens, including no promise of inherent value, no promise of continuing payments, and
no guarantee that Mindfire Tokens will hold any particular value. Mindfire Tokens hold no rights in
the Mindfire Foundation.
This White Paper may be updated or altered, with the latest version of the White Paper prevailing
over previous versions and we are not obliged to give you any notice of the fact or content of any
changes. The latest version of the White Paper in English is available at the website
https://mindfire.global. While we make every effort to ensure that all data submitted in the White
Paper is accurate and up to date at the point in time that the relevant version has been disseminated,
the proposed White Paper is no alternative to consulting an independent 3rd party opinion.
The White Paper does not constitute an agreement that binds Mindfire Foundation. Mindfire
Foundation and the Mindfire Foundation's directors, officers, employees and associates do not
warrant or assume any legal liability arising out of or related to the accuracy, reliability, or
completeness of any material contained in the White Paper. To the fullest extent permitted by any
applicable law in any jurisdiction, Mindfire Foundation disclaim all liability to you and everyone else
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in respect of the content of this White Paper, whether under any theory of tort, contract or otherwise
and whether in respect of direct, indirect, consequential, special, punitive or similar damages.
Persons who intend to purchase Mindfire Tokens, should seek the advice of independent experts
before committing to any action, set out in the White Paper.
Mindfire Foundation | c/o Sielva Management SA, | Gubelstrasse 11 | 6300 Zug, Switzerland | www.mindfire.global