Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has publicly supported the controversial use of AI-generated influencers, stating that artificial intelligence is crucial for managing and growing large blockchain communities. The debate arose after the Input Output (IO) X account posted content featuring an AI influencer developed by the Midnight City team, drawing criticism from some community members. Hoskinson explained that the test was designed to showcase emerging AI capabilities and explore their potential for ecosystem development.
Midnight City, an interactive simulation platform built for the Midnight Network, serves as the backdrop for this research. It models a digital society where autonomous AI agents engage in work, trade, and economic activity, with transactions observable from public, auditor, and regulatory perspectives. Hoskinson emphasized that experimenting with such tools is vital as the industry evolves.
Looking ahead, Hoskinson outlined broader AI integration within the Midnight ecosystem, including agentic trading capabilities and affiliate-based relationships to drive adoption. The platform also plans to incorporate major AI standards, enabling developers to test technologies and identify practical decentralized use cases. He noted that AI agents could alleviate the strain on communication teams as communities scale, referencing the growth of the open-source AI agent platform OpenClaw as evidence of rising demand.
Despite the backlash over the AI influencer experiment, Hoskinson stressed that Midnight City remains one of the most important initiatives under development, with AI set to play a central role in its long-term roadmap.
