Decentralizing AI: how Bagel is empowering innovators – with founder & CEO Bidhan Roy
.jpg)
The future of artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be locked away in corporate silos. In this episode of Web3 with Sam Kamani, we sit down with Bidhan Roy, founder and CEO of Bagel, to explore how AI can be built, shared, and monetized in a way that benefits everyone—not just big tech.
Bidhan’s journey spans years in the AI trenches, including leading roles at Amazon Alexa, where he worked on large-scale, real-world AI systems. Now, with Bagel, he’s tackling some of the most persistent challenges in the AI ecosystem—privacy, access, and incentives—through a Web3-powered, peer-to-peer machine learning platform.
Breaking down the AI status quo
The current AI industry is dominated by centralized players who control both the models and the data. This creates three big problems:
- Monetization bottlenecks – Most AI developers struggle to get paid fairly for their work.
- Privacy concerns – Sensitive datasets often remain locked away, limiting their usefulness in innovation.
- Community under-rewarding – The people contributing data, compute, or expertise rarely share in the upside.
Bagel’s answer? Build a decentralized AI ecosystem where anyone can contribute, train, and deploy models while retaining ownership of their work.
Democratizing access to data and models
One of the episode’s most powerful takeaways is Bagel’s commitment to privacy-preserving AI. Bidhan explains how encrypted computation and federated learning allow models to learn from data without ever exposing it.
This approach unlocks untapped value in private datasets—think healthcare, finance, and other sensitive industries—where traditional AI simply can’t operate without breaching trust.
Bagel’s shared ownership model means contributors are rewarded proportionally, ensuring that the people powering the AI revolution benefit directly from it.
Navigating the AI + Web3 startup journey
Building at the intersection of AI and Web3 isn’t easy. Bidhan shares candid insights into:
- The technical complexity of merging decentralized infrastructure with high-performance AI.
- Regulatory uncertainty around data privacy and digital assets.
- User adoption hurdles—how to make the technology approachable to non-technical audiences.
Yet, he also notes the freedom and innovation that Web3 enables—permissionless development, global collaboration, and community-driven growth.
Looking ahead: AI’s decentralized future
Bidhan sees a future where AI models aren’t just proprietary assets but community-governed tools that evolve with collective input. For this to happen, projects must prioritize real user engagement over hype cycles.
When asked which projects inspire him, he points to AI and Web3 initiatives that embrace open-source principles while solving tangible problems.
Why this conversation matters
If you care about AI, privacy, or the power of community-driven innovation, this episode offers a blueprint for what’s possible when we combine technical excellence with decentralized values.
Bagel’s vision shows that AI can be powerful and privacy-conscious—empowering innovators without compromising on trust.
🎧 Listen to the full episode here:
🔗 Connect with Bagel & Bidhan:
📩 Be a guest on the podcast: Contact us here
.jpg)
