Researchers tap AI in the fight against ICO scams

There's no definitive way to tell if an initial coin offering (ICO) is a scam, but a machine learning-based research method could make it easier to avoid the most obvious ones. A Chinese startup called Shannon.AI, working with researchers from Stanford, University of California Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan, recently unveiled a white paper detailing an AI designed to sniff out cryptocurrency scams. When it comes to cryptocurrency investing there's only one sure-fire way to avoid getting scammed: don't do it. Sure, the Bitcoin bros and millennial millionaires make it look like we can all drive our lambos to the moon if we invest, but the reality is the majority of ICOs last year were either scams or failed. Despite the fact that ICOs are able to provide fair and lawful investment opportunities, the ease of crowdfunding creates opportunities and incentives for unscrupulous businesses to use ICOs to execute "pump and dump" schemes, in which the ICO initiators drive up the value of the crowdfunded cryptocurrency and then quickly "dump" the coins for a profit.