The International Crowd: Amsterdam, March 2025
Sixth in a series about my AI lecture tour through Ivy League and international universities
A Different World
Amsterdam was different from the Ivy League stops. International. Diverse in a way American universities try to be but rarely achieve.
I stayed at the Ambassade Hotel - a classic canal house property full of art, very old, directly in the middle of old town. A couple blocks from the main shopping district in one direction, the red-light district in the other. That’s Amsterdam for you.
I was there with Angela, my former agent. Her family lives in Amsterdam, so we had locals showing us the real spots - a neighborhood bar, a local restaurant, the places tourists don’t find. We took a wine-and-cheese gondola ride down a canal. Hit up some “coffee shops” - including Mike Tyson’s place. Smoked the good good good. Ate traditional Dutch food that sounded nasty but tasted fantastic.
The city itself was a revelation. Bikes everywhere - and I mean everywhere. Brick streets. Wonderful old buildings with hidden courtyards. The baked goods from the nearby Jumbo grocery were incredible. Huge smoothies for a couple dollars. Food was insanely good and shockingly cheap.
ABC Club Sandwich served me the best hamburger I’ve ever had. Perfect texture. Large but bite-able. Not so juicy as to be messy. Apparently handmade condiments, handmade fries. Just flawless.
The conference was technically about blockchain. But by now, everyone knew my real topic was AI.
The Crowd
After my talk, people crowded around me. We walked through the halls together, talking.
Eastern Europeans asking about AI development in their countries. Asian entrepreneurs thinking about cross-border applications. Europeans wrestling with EU regulations. Everyone trying to figure out where they fit in this transformation.
It wasn’t a Q&A. It was a conversation. A bunch of people from different parts of the world, different backgrounds, different concerns - all circling the same set of questions.
What’s coming? How do we prepare? Where’s the opportunity?
Robotics
By March 2025, I was seeing robotics developments that genuinely impressed me.
Not the Boston Dynamics parkour videos - those had been impressive for years. But practical robotics. Warehouse automation that actually worked. Manufacturing systems that could adapt. The early signs of humanoid robots that might actually be useful.
So we went down that rabbit hole. The Amsterdam crowd was hungry for it. Blockchain might have been why they came, but robotics and AI were what they wanted to talk about.
The Provenance Argument
Here’s the thing about blockchain: it’s genuinely useful. Not for the speculation, not for the coins, but for provenance.
Knowing where something came from. Knowing who made it. Knowing it hasn’t been tampered with.
The further we go into this digital world, the more provenance matters. When AI can generate anything - text, images, video, code - how do you know what’s real? How do you know who created what? How do you get credit for your work?
Blockchain solves that problem. Not elegantly, not simply, but it solves it.
I made this case in Amsterdam. In a room full of blockchain believers, I didn’t need to convince them the technology mattered. I just needed to connect it to the AI future everyone was thinking about.
Provenance becomes the most important thing we have. Your money matters, sure. But credit for what you create - proof of what you contributed - that becomes essential in a world where creation itself becomes easy.
The Beautiful Complexity
Blockchain is an extremely complex beast. The technical details are gnarly. The UX is terrible. Normal people can’t use it without help.
That’s actually why AI matters for blockchain. AI can be the mitigating factor - the interface layer that makes this complex technology accessible to normal humans.
Not “AI and blockchain” as buzzword bullshit. AI actually enabling people to use blockchain without understanding blockchain. That’s the real synthesis.
The Feeling
Amsterdam was a beautiful, wonderful time.
The conversations after the talk were better than the talk itself. Walking through halls with people from around the world, going down rabbit holes about robotics and provenance and the future - that’s the experience I’ll remember.
Not the slides. Not the podium. The conversations.
Next: Oxford - an 85-minute deep dive into the convergence of AI and blockchain.
Date: March 14, 2025 Venue: Amsterdam (Blockchain Conference) Audience: International - Europe, Asia, Eastern Europe Key topics: Robotics, provenance, AI/blockchain synthesis Vibe: Extended conversations after the talk