The Machine Intelligence Research Institute got a big boost recently in its ability to explore artificial intelligence.
Jed McCaleb, the creator of Ripple, donated the XRP equivalent of $500,000 to the institute, making it the largest donation the organization had ever received.
At the current exchange rate of 1 XRP to 0.02 USD, that’s about 25 million XRP.
That is the currency created by Ripple Labs, whose Ripple network is still in beta. Ripple’s idea is to create a network that represents a step forward in the evolution of cryptocurrencies, and keep around 45% of the currency in reserve for itself. The rest will be distributed.
MIRI itself is a non-profit organization that seeks to ensure that developments in artificial intelligence are carried out ethically and positively affect humanity. In other words, its idea is to avoid any Skynet situations.
McCaleb himself has, since July, Ripple Labs taken on a less-involved role at the company as a director. McCaleb first gained fame in the digital currency real as the founder of the current version of Mt. Gox, before conceived as a trading platform for Magic: The Gathering game cards.
MIRI told it plans to keep some of the XRP as an investment, distribute some of the money, and convert the rest into USD and BTC.
The institute was already accepting Bitcoins when executive director Luke Muehlhauser reached out to McCaleb last year to discuss setting up Ripple payments. That conversation sparked the donation itself, it seems.