In modern computing ecosystem, data is captured from various sources and is transmitted from devices (e.g., IoT) through the networks. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its derivatives have been used as powerful tools to analyze and process the captured data to achieve high quality and productivity with low cost. The 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge highlighted that automated AI-based cyber-reasoning systems can be effective in addressing security issues. Although AI is powerful and can be engaged with distributed computing, deceptive analysis would be generated when corrupted or dishonest data is intentionally or unintentionally integrated by a malicious third-parity, and this calls to mind the popular phrase “AI is only as good as the data you feed it”. As a result, AI-based systems have recently been proven vulnerable to attacks based on automated generation of adversarial inputs.

Rapid advances, on the other hand, are being made in blockchain world (both in the number of published papers and the number of active researchers) with broadly diverse applications that promise to better meet business and individual security needs. Blockchain as a popular ledger technology has the potential to be leveraged in different aspects of cyber space. The blockchain attempts to reduce transaction risks and financial fraud, due to characteristics such as decentralization, verifiability and immutability for ensuring authenticity, reliability and integrity of data. When the trust and reliability of the data can be ensured, more secure and trustworthy outcomes can be produced by the AI. This special section's goal is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners in academia and industry to share research results and experiences that explore the interplay (Synergy) between two highly discussed disruptive technologies “AI and Blockchain” to understand how they can help one another in B2B and M2M environments.

Articles published within this Research Topic in 2019 are eligible for the $10,000 “Yun Family Frontiers in Blockchain Prize".

For more details, please see our blog post here:

https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/12/12/frontiers-in-blockchain-introduces-new-journal-wide-10000-best-paper-prize/

Keywords: Blockchain, Artificial intellegience, Machine learning, IoT, 5G, Big Data

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.