OpenAI CEO Sam Altman isn’t giving up on his controversial digital ID project, Worldcoin. He, or, rather, formally – the startup behind it, that he is behind, i.e., Tools for Humanity – has instead gone for a rebrand.
Worldcoin is now called “World” – so good luck (re)searching that online. Still, “world” combined with the concept of “proof of personhood” and Altman’s name should return some interesting results.
What we already know is that World(coin) works by hoovering up people’s most sensitive, unique biometric data, particularly that contained in their eyes. The original idea was to incentivize people to participate by offering some crypto change in return.
But now, the focus is reported to have moved away from that (apparently failed) direction to producing iris-scanning devices. The task of those is still “proof of personhood” – tech that provides digital ID. And a recent event held in San Francisco heard all about it.
Tools for Humanity presented a new version of “Orbs” – a tool designed to scan people’s eyeballs (irises) in order to identify them.
If you’re not sure what role Altman, OpenAI, “World,” Tools for Humanity – its current and previous targets – play in all this, it appears to be “confusion by design.”
TechCrunch reports that Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania not only declared Worldcoin is a name that “just doesn’t work anymore” – Blania also shared that Altman now “spends a good chunk of his time working on World(coin)” – but also that “World(coin)’s cryptocurrency” might, going forward, get integrated into (OpenAI’s) ChatGPT.
At this point, a tech industry neophyte might say – “I’ll have whatever Altman’s having, thanks.”
But, the intent doesn’t appear as convoluted and as over-ambitious as it seems. There is a big push from various corners around the globe right now to usher in digital ID, and it’s no wonder various companies – however, they choose to obfuscate it – are positioning themselves for those incoming “base infrastructure” contracts.
Altman and Blania, the reports said, described their effort as a four-step one: Orb is already here, and so is “a distributed ownership network with blockchain.”
“Redistributing the benefits of AI” is cited as one of those steps – and take that definition as you will – but the fourth, scale, is very real.
“World(coin) had several announcements (…) including the launch of a new blockchain and a new app, but they all revolved around scaling up the company’s 7 million verified humans to something much larger,” reported TechCrunch.
