Nils Pihl is a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of AUKI Network, a blockchain-based protocol focused on decentralized social networking. ^[9]

Education

Pihl graduated from Lund University in 2007 and studied Mandarin at Bejing Language and Culture University in 2010. ^[1]

Career

Pihl's career began in 2005 with the Swedish Army, where he completed 10 months of military training as a military police officer. In 2007, he joined HansaWorld as an international channel manager, where he developed and executed channel strategies for the company. His responsibilities included recruiting and managing international partners and representing the company at events like MacWorld and GITEX. From 2010 to 2013, he founded Mention, LLC, a consulting agency focused on engagement design and game mechanics. The company developed models of consumer behavior and provided consulting services for various organizations, including Weibo and Tianji.

Pihl served as CEO of Traintracks.io, a behavioral analytics platform, from 2013 to 2017. He led the company through successful fundraising efforts and managed product development, sales, and technical consulting projects with clients like Daimler. In 2017, he worked as the interim director of communications at Argyle Hotels Group, assisting in preparing the company for acquisition. He then joined KaiOS Technologies in 2018 as the director of data and business intelligence, where he led a team focused on data-driven insights for the company's mobile ecosystem.

Since 2021, Pihl has held CEO roles at Matterless Studios and Auki Labs, which work in augmented reality and AI technologies. He has also been an advisor at Mentra since 2024 and has worked as a behavioral engineer and branding consultant through Memetic Engineering since 2017. ^[2]

Interviews

Auki Labs

In an X Space hosted by Arkeen, Pihl described Auki Labs’ vision for 2025, focusing on integrating AI and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN). From its inception in 2019, the company aimed to create a decentralized machine perception network, initially for augmented reality applications in gaming, which evolved into a protocol enabling devices to better understand and interact with the physical world. Pihl emphasized the need for investment in decentralized sensor networks instead of traditional GPU enhancements, arguing that physical AI, which comprehends real-world physics, is crucial for advancing AI technologies. He illustrated the potential applications of their network in retail, such as tracking empty shelves, and discussed the broader implications of making physical data accessible to AI systems. Additionally, Pihl touched upon the future of robotics and energy solutions, highlighting the importance of innovations in battery technology to support the growing number of autonomous robots expected in daily life. ^[5]

Spatial Computing

On the DePINed Podcast, host Tom Trobridge interviewed Pihl, who discussed AUKI Network on creating a decentralized machine perception network. Pihl explained that digital devices lack an inherent understanding of the physical world, which limits their effectiveness. To address this, his team developed a spatial computing protocol called Posemesh, enabling devices to share data and resources for improved environmental awareness. They aimed to decentralize visual positioning systems, allowing individual venues to manage their data and leverage hyperlocal information. Pihl also shared his journey from being a competitive gamer to developing advanced technologies, emphasizing his reluctance toward cryptocurrency until recognizing its necessity for operating a decentralized network effectively. He outlined the project's unique tokenomics, which aimed to balance demand-side pricing stability with rewards for supply-side contributors. ^[6]

Presentations

Perception Layer

In his ETHDenver 2025 talk, Pihl discussed the concept of a "perception layer" for physical AI and its potential impact on robotics, smart cities, and extended reality (XR). Drawing from Naval Ravikant’s 2014 blog post, Pihl highlighted the need for a new protocol to facilitate machine communication, particularly for self-driving cars. He argued that machines must coordinate in real time as the global economy expands and AI systems proliferate. Pihl emphasized the importance of a decentralized spatial computing protocol, enabling AI systems to perceive and navigate the physical world collaboratively, thus protecting privacy and ensuring autonomy in future technologies. He called for the decentralization movement to build a collaborative machine perception network as an essential infrastructure for AI's future. ^[7]

Satoshi’s Legacy

In a presentation at WOW Summit 2024, Pihl discussed the legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto, claiming that in the future, his contribution would not be remembered for Bitcoin, but rather for enabling AI to perceive space. He explored the concept of spatial semantic reasoning, which allows robots and AI to navigate complex environments by understanding physical distances and objects' nature. The speaker highlighted the limitations of current GPS technology in densely built areas like the Greater Bay Area, where devices and AI systems struggle to comprehend their surroundings. He proposed that the future of AI and robotics lies in collaborative spatial computing, where devices work together to understand and map physical spaces. He also suggested that the next major development would be a decentralized machine perception network, where devices share spatial data and computational resources. This decentralized infrastructure could replace GPS and facilitate more efficient AI-driven decision-making on a global scale, fostering a new era of spatial computing. ^[8]

Auki Posemesh

In a livestream on Discord and Twitter, Pihl shared an update about Auki Labs’ Posemesh progress. He discussed the completion of a 100-day development sprint aimed at refining their products, particularly focusing on a new application called Cactus. Cactus, built as a task manager and AI system for organizing physical spaces, enables the placement of digital information within physical environments, offering practical solutions for staff communication and knowledge transfer in retail. Pihl highlighted the application's ability to track product locations using augmented reality, simplifying staff operations and reducing inefficiencies. He also mentioned that Cactus had recently been deployed in one of Northern Europe's largest retailers and was poised to expand significantly, with plans to scale to 100,000 locations over the next few years. ^[3]