I noticed an interesting story — how one person can influence entire industries. It’s about Ilya Polosukhin, a figure who worked at the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain.

First, he spent seven years at Google, where he participated in developing TensorFlow — a library that essentially became the foundation for all modern machine learning. It’s not just code; it’s a tool that gave researchers around the world the ability to work with AI without huge resources. Polosukhin is a MIPT graduate, an expert in computer science, and deeply knowledgeable in the subject.

But the most interesting things happened next. Together with his team, he created NEAR Protocol — a blockchain platform that approached the problem from a different angle. If TensorFlow made AI more accessible, NEAR tried to do the same for blockchain. The protocol is designed to make it easy for developers to create decentralized applications, including DeFi systems.

Do you see what the essence is? Ilya Polosukhin didn’t just create technology; he created technology for people. TensorFlow Lite in 2017 was an attempt to simplify AI for mobile devices. NEAR in 2020 was an attempt to make blockchain scalable and user-friendly. And then Aurora in 2021 — a Layer-2 solution for Ethereum.

This influenced the entire investment landscape. The crypto industry began to understand that user experience is not secondary but primary. Polosukhin’s approach to protocol design became a kind of standard that other projects started to strive for.

Polosukhin showed that it’s possible to be a leader in different fields simultaneously — in AI and blockchain. His contribution to making technologies more accessible and user-friendly is still evident today. It’s interesting to see what other innovations he will pioneer in the coming years.