Application of TEE in AI Agents

Source: Daoshuo Blockchain

In the past two days, two AI agents have used a technology that has existed for a long time but has not been very popular: TEE.

The full name of TEE is Trusted Execution Environment.

This is a solution that relies on hardware security.

It refers to an execution environment built by setting up a combination of hardware and software in a computing device. This environment is usually used to protect sensitive data and perform key operations. It can prevent unauthorized access and malicious operations.

Simply put, if we run a software in a reliable TEE environment, the outside world cannot crack and obtain the data and information during the operation.

In the past, this technology was mentioned. It was usually used in environments such as IoT devices and cloud computing. In the past two years, some encryption projects have mentioned the use of this technology, such as wallets.

But overall, I always feel that it is facing the enterprise market. It seems that there is no potential for the application scenarios of individual consumers, so I basically don’t care.

The encryption ecosystem also has a project Phala Network that uses this technology. It provides a cloud computing platform based on TEE technology. In its white paper, it depicts a way to use distributed computing power to provide this execution environment.

I have seen this project earlier. I remember that after reading its white paper, I thought of the Filecoin model again, so I felt that this so-called way of using distributed computing power to implement TEE is just another "imaginary" application, and using blockchain is purely a mechanical application.

However, recently two new AI agents Spore (Spore.fun) and aiPool (@aipool_tee) have actually used the technology of this project.

In the previous article, when I introduced the AI ​​agents that are now commonly implemented, I wrote: Most of the encrypted wallets used by these AI agents require humans to apply for them. After applying by humans, the wallet is handed over to the AI ​​agent for use.

In this case, because humans have the private key of the wallet, humans can completely interfere with the operation of the AI ​​agent-------the simplest and crudest way is to directly transfer the assets in the wallet.

So such AI agents cannot be called "autonomous", at least not financially autonomous.

But Spore and aiPool are completely running in the TEE environment of the Phala network. Their wallets and keys are completely in their own hands. Humans cannot control their wallets, let alone transfer their assets.

Therefore, from the perspective of the degree of control over encrypted assets, AI agents have now achieved complete autonomy of encrypted assets with the help of TEE technology, out of human control.

In my opinion, this is really an unexpected surprise in the application of TEE technology in the field of AI agents.

Following this path, each fully autonomous AI agent needs to run in the TEE environment and generate the private key of its own encrypted wallet. Then the use scenario of TEE technology is far from what I once imagined, mainly for traditional commercial and enterprise users, and will also find huge application space in the rather broad market of AI agents.

As for the Phala Network project itself, although I still think that the model described in its white paper is a bit forced, in any case, it has found its own application scenarios in these two typical cases. This is a remarkable event, which can be regarded as truly bringing the TEE technology into the very promising encryption track.

A few days ago, I lamented in the article: Sometimes the development of technology is really unexpected. The use scenario we look forward to is A, but the use scenario that it really flourishes in is B.

TEE can also be regarded as a case.

Let’s go back to AI agent. It is not an exaggeration to describe its recent development as a thousand miles a day. These developments are not just aspirations in my mind, but have turned my previous imagination into a living reality step by step.