Why Federated Learning AI is the Key, w/ Nic Lane, co-founder of Flower Labs

The People's AI: The Decentralized AI Podcast

In this episode of The People’s AI, presented by Vana, we explore one of the most promising frontiers in artificial intelligence: federated learning.
We speak with Nic Lane, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Flower Labs and a professor at the University of Cambridge, to unpack why decentralized AI may not only be more ethical—but more effective—than centralized systems.
We dive into:
•Why centralized AI may soon hit a wall due to limited data access
•How federated learning enables richer, more private, and more diverse datasets
•The mechanics behind training large language models across global networks
•Flower’s partnership with Vana to build Collective One, a new model powered by user-owned data
•Real-world use cases: from healthcare to weather forecasting to robotics
•Why decentralization isn’t just a principle—it might be a technical necessity
Whether you’re a developer, investor, or just curious about where AI is headed, this episode offers a lucid, technical-yet-accessible look at the future of open source AI, data DAOs, and user-owned AI models.
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube—and if you’re into crypto and AI, this is the conversation you don’t want to miss.

For more: https://flower.ai/

Presented by Vana, the open protocol for user-owned AI through user-owned data. Vana's vision is for user-owned AI through user owned-data. Its mission is to be the world's first open protocol for data sovereignty.

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Vana at MIT Decentralized AI Summit, Builders Workshop

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