Altman-backed startup rolls out eyeball-scanning tech across US
(Bloomberg) — Tools for Humanity, a startup co-founded by OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, plans to roll out thousands of eyeball-scanning Orb devices across the US, marking a major expansion for the company and its novel identification services.
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Starting this week, people in six US cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta, will be able to scan their eyes using a spherical orb device at select locations operated by Tools for Humanity's World project as well as certain partners, the company said at an event late Wednesday. Previously, the technology was only available in the US in a limited testing capacity.
The company, led by co-founder and CEO Alex Blania, has billed the Orb as a powerful tool to verify people's identities and prove someone is really human at a time when artificial intelligence deepfakes are becoming more convincing. Those who agree to the scan can also receive a cryptocurrency token called Worldcoin through the company.
To date, more than 12 million people have used the tool to verify their identities in countries including the Philippines, Portugal and Thailand, according to the company. World's Orb and the cryptocurrency have also previously faced regulatory scrutiny in Hong Kong and countries such as Kenya and South Korea.
Adrian Ludwig, chief architect of Tools for Humanity, said the company met with regulators in the US — without naming which ones — ahead of its planned expansion. Tools for Humanity also said the information it collects is encrypted and that it doesn't store personal data.
In addition to the US expansion, Tools for Humanity announced it's partnering with dating app company Match Group Inc. (MTCH) to pilot age verification, starting with Tinder users in Japan.
Match and rival Bumble Inc. (BMBL) have prioritized removing bad actors from their platforms to combat fake profiles supercharged by the rise of generative AI. Both have rolled out ID verification in the past year and Tinder has signed on a new background check vendor to give daters additional piece of mind.
Ludwig said it will be up to Match to integrate what he calls the 'proof-of-humanity' credential across more of its dating brands like Hinge or Match.com. He also envisions a future where a person's background check results can be linked to their Orb-verified identity, but that would require deeper partnerships with various identity services.
'For consumers, they don't want to think about this technology,' Ludwig said. 'What they want to think about is: 'I want to be dating real people.''
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