Sam Altman’s Eye-Scanning Orb Gets a Fresh Design—and Will Be Delivered to Your Home
The ambitious identity-verification initiative Worldcoin, now referred to as World, envisions a future where humans are “orb-verified.”
LAST YEAR, a group named Tools for Humanity traveled to demonstrate its eye-scanning Orb. The metal sphere—an actual, tangible orb—was one component of a system in which people would eventually use their biometric data to confirm their humanity.
The initiative, named Worldcoin, could have been dismissed as yet another techno-idealistic venture destined to collapse if it weren’t for one individual associated with it: Sam Altman, the cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, a remarkable tech company of contemporary times. The concept of Worldcoin emerged in 2019 when Altman started investigating identity verification for potential use in universal basic income programs.
He collaborated with technologist Alex Blania to transform the concept into a reality. In a world where AI is advancing quickly, they speculated that it would be crucial for a human to show they weren’t a bot. The solution they devised depended on people employing iris-scanning technology to create private tokens that would authenticate their identities globally.
Worldcoin, therefore, represents the peak of tech solutionism: A human-level AI universe that Altman is creating could also be governed by a device that he is involved with.
Today, in a spacious venue in San Francisco’s Mission District, Altman and Blania unveiled their newest concept for Worldcoin, which is now renamed the World Network, or simply World. The occasion featured keynote speeches, fresh hardware, commitments to enhanced services, and opportunities for firsthand (or visually engaging?) experiences with the latest product, resembling an Apple event if the designers had just come back from an ayahuasca journey. (The event’s Wi-Fi password is: IntelligenceAge.)
A representative from Tools for Humanity stated that every participant at the event can get their iris scanned today, and 500 attendees will be given a new Orb when it is released in 2025.
“We require additional orbs, significantly more orbs, likely around a thousand more orbs than we currently possess,” stated Rich Heley, chief device officer of Tools for Humanity, during the keynote.
This Orb has a fresh, glossy appearance. It operates on Nvidia’s Jetson chipset and, as stated by Tools for Humanity, “offers almost 5X the AI performance” for quicker identity verification. All of this does not diminish its oddity.
In Latin America, beginning next year, the Orb will be available on-demand similar to ordering a pizza: Thanks to a collaboration with the app Rappi, residents can have an Orb delivered to their doorstep to scan their irises and register for the World Network. The Orb continues on its cheerful path. (Tools for Humanity designer Thomas Meyerhoffer mentioned that the SD card delivered to someone’s address contains no existing data.)
World announces the launch of two Orb-scanning locations, in Buenos Aires and Mexico City. The Orb could also appear in your local corner shop or café, allowing you to request an iris scan along with your latte. Currently, there are four places in the US where you can “locate your nearest Orb,” with a total of 333 Orb locations worldwide.
THIS ORB HARDWARE serves primarily as a container for sensors and semiconductors needed to attract your attention. After the biometric data is collected, it is stored in an app. This, quite evidently, brings up concerns regarding data privacy and storage. Blania asserts that when a user generates a World ID and has their iris scanned and saved in the World app, it remains encrypted and is kept solely on local devices.
This World app and World network will drive Altman and Blania’s vision for the future of identity verification, and these software services received an upgrade today as well. A number of them.
Initially, Altman and Blania mention that they have enhanced the World ID service to accommodate several hundred million credentials, an increase from the roughly 7 million World ID holders that are currently “Orb-verified,” a potentially disconcerting new term.
The firm is introducing a new function named Deep Face (a reference to “deepfake”) that it claims will offer a novel method to fight against fraud. It will work with virtual communication applications such as FaceTime, WhatsApp, and Zoom. If a person appears in a video call claiming to be you, and you’ve been identity-verified via World, the concept is that the app will indicate that it’s not actually you.
The press inquired of Blania about the company’s strategy for delivering its Deep Face service, which necessitates some form of facial recognition, while still complying with its updated data privacy policies. He outlined a situation in which an individual’s World ID is saved and operated locally on their Mac, functioning as an application layer during a video chat when that individual logs in and utilizes the device’s camera. However, World currently lacks any formal partnerships with Apple, Meta, or Zoom for this solution; it merely stated that the World app will “support” these processes.
At today’s event, World announced that its blockchain network—“the first blockchain created for humans”—is now operational, indicating that the millions of World ID holders and World App users will transition to this new foundational blockchain network.
Although the biometric-scanning Orb and the World network are based on crypto tokens, the term “crypto” was rarely used throughout the event. Rather, Altman and Blania highlighted World’s blockchain services, digital asset oversight, and virtual communication solutions.
BLANIA ASSERTED DURING the press conference that, moving forward, World aims to establish the “largest financial network” on Earth.
In another interview, Blania mentioned that during weekly Sunday gatherings at Altman’s residence, they drew inspiration from PayPal’s ascent. Just as Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and others first led the charge in digital payments, transforming online commerce and amassing billions in wealth, the World team envisioned creating a comparable network for tokens on a distributed platform.
Currently, the World app is available for free to all users. Scanning your eyeballs is also free of charge. Tools for Humanity is venture-backed, and the foundation, in its pursuit of the contemporary identity verification market and your personal biometric information, is concentrated on growth, growth, growth. Ultimately, it could generate revenue through processing fees, Blania stated.
According to the organization’s spokesperson, the majority of Tools for Humanity’s current expansion initiatives are in regions outside the US, attributed to unclear regulations regarding crypto within the country.
When you utilize the Orb and its compatible app in the US, it will scan and save your iris but will not create a crypto token for you.
Two and a half years ago, the Worldcoin initiative faced criticism for purportedly misleading and exploitative methods in enlisting people to have their irises scanned. At that moment, Blania ascribed this erratic behavior to the organization still being in its “startup” stage. In a discussion, Blania mentioned that the company is undertaking “about a thousand initiatives” to create a more thorough consent process. This involves establishing an “operational team” in each market that World will enter. He mentioned there will be “explanations” available in the World app regarding how the product functions.
“And once more, there is no information kept in any central location or anything,” Blania stated.
In 2023, authorities in Germany, Brazil, India, South Korea, and Kenya were also examining the service due to worries regarding its storage and usage of biometric information. Kenya has completely halted the registration for Worldcoin. The company was fined by South Korea. Worldcoin halted its services in India, Brazil, and France.
Blania mentioned he thinks World will restart in Kenya “in the near future.”
During the press briefing, when questioned about the focus on Latin America as a market for growth, particularly through the partnership with Rappi for orbs-on-delivery, Blania challenged the notion that World was giving Latin America precedence over other regions.
“Blania stated, ‘We simply have finite resources, and a natural order is occurring.'” “We are equally concentrated on Asia and other regions.” Argentina has emerged as a rapidly expanding market for us, and we’re thrilled about it.”
“However, the project is actually named World,” he noted.
Following the keynote, Altman rushed into the press room to wave and excuse himself for not being able to remain, then departed discreetly like a dignitary.
