The AI Rebel: Illia Polosukhin and His Fight Against Big Tech Control

I've had my eye on Illia Polosukhin for some time now - and let me tell you, this guy isn't your average tech bro. A former Google employee who actually had the guts to walk away from the corporate machine before they could claim his groundbreaking work on transformers. Smart move.

While those tech giants were busy figuring out how to monetize every aspect of our digital lives, Polosukhin was already plotting a revolution through NEAR Protocol. I've watched this platform evolve from a mere concept into a legitimate threat to centralized systems.

The Man Behind the Protocol

Coming from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Polosukhin spent seven years at Google working on TensorFlow. But unlike most corporate drones, he wasn't satisfied just helping a tech monopoly consolidate power. He wanted something different - something that would actually give power back to users.

His time at Google working on machine learning tools probably showed him exactly how the surveillance capitalism game works. No wonder he bailed before the transformer paper was published - he saw where things were heading.

Disrupting the Status Quo

What impresses me about NEAR is how it challenges the notion that blockchain has to be complicated and inaccessible. While other platforms seem almost purposefully designed to keep regular users out, Polosukhin's creation actually tries to make decentralization practical.

The 2020 mainnet launch and subsequent development of Aurora in 2021 weren't just technical milestones - they were direct challenges to Ethereum's dominance. And frankly, the market needed that kick in the pants.

The Problem with Polosukhin's Vision

Look, I love what he's doing, but let's be real - big money and corporate interests are already infiltrating the so-called "decentralized" space. Even NEAR, with all its idealism, can't completely escape the gravitational pull of venture capital and institutionalization.

The crypto trading platforms are already lining up to profit from anything built on NEAR, just as they do with every other promising technology. It's the nature of capitalism - innovation gets packaged, commodified, and eventually controlled.

Why It Matters

Polosukhin represents something increasingly rare in tech: someone who actually believes technology should serve people rather than exploit them. His dual expertise in AI and blockchain positions him uniquely at the intersection of today's most transformative technologies.

I'm watching closely to see if he can maintain that independence or if the system will eventually co-opt his vision too. The pressure to compromise must be immense.

As for his technical contributions - from TensorFlow to NEAR Protocol - they speak for themselves. The question isn't whether Polosukhin is brilliant (he clearly is), but whether brilliance alone is enough to resist the corrupting influence of power and money that has claimed so many technological visionaries before him.