Latest news with #WorldCoin
Indian Express
09-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Sam Altman's World to launch iris-scanning Orb services in UK starting June 12
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's other venture, World, is all set to enter the United Kingdom this week with its biometric identity verification services starting to roll out in London from Thursday, June 12, followed by an expansion to Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast, and Glasgow over the next few months. World scans people's eyes using a spherical eye-scanning device called the Orb. The technology is primarily designed to serve as an alternative authentication method to existing bot prevention measures such as CAPTCHA and facial recognition. The company recently opened up shop in the US with retail stores in six locations including Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, Miami, and San Francisco. World currently has over 13 million verified users with plans to scale growth amid the AI era. Formerly known as WorldCoin, World is based on the belief that it will eventually be impossible to distinguish humans from AI bots on the Internet. Its Orb device aims to prevent the misuse of AI-generated deepfakes by scanning a person's face and iris. It then generates a unique code that could serve as an ID for authentication confirming that the individual is human and not AI. Users who opt to have their iris scanned and receive their verified IDs will also be awarded with some amount of World's WLD cryptocurrency token. The World ID can also be used to sign into various applications. It currently works with applications such as Reddit, Discord, and Minecraft. Since its launch in 2021, World has been plagued by privacy concerns. However, the startup has said that it looks to address these concerns by encrypting the biometric data it collects from users and deleting the original data. World's verification system is built on a decentralised network comprising users' smartphones, which reportedly makes it safer than storing and processing biometric data via the cloud. The startup's Orb technology is reportedly seeing significant demand from enterprise users as well as government clients. This demand has been spurred by the growing threat of AI for fraudulent purposes targeting banks, etc. 'The idea is no longer just something that's theoretical. It's something that's real and affecting them every single day,' Adrian Ludwig, chief architect of Tools for Humanity, which is a core contributor to World, was quoted as saying by CNBC. He also revealed that World is in talks with regulators such as the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, which serves as the data protection authority in the country. 'We're beginning to see governments now more interested in how can we use this as a mechanism to improve our identity infrastructure. Mechanisms to identify and reduce fraud is of interest to governments,' Ludwig said. 'In general, there's been lots of questions: how do we make sure this works? How do we protect privacy? If we engage with this, does it expose us to risks? All of those questions we've been able to answer,' he added.
Indian Express
03-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
World, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's new startup, launches in the US: Everything you need to know
World, a start-up backed by OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, launched in the United States this week with the opening of its first retail store in San Francisco. The store of the startup, which aims to allow users to verify their humanity online, features tech devices called the Orbs that scan a person's retina to ascertain if they are human. Speaking at the launch, Altman said, 'We wanted a way to make sure that humans stay special and central in a world where the Internet was going to have lots of AI-driven content.' The verified human network is being built one human at a time. — World (@worldcoin) May 1, 2025 Here is a look at the startup, how the Orbs work, and the concerns around them. What is the World startup? Formerly known as WorldCoin, World is based on the belief that it will eventually be impossible to distinguish humans from artificial intelligence (AI) agents on the Internet. To address this, the startup has created a program called World ID — 'an anonymous proof of human that securely and privately proves you are a unique human,' according to World'swebsite. Ironically, World's implicit goal is to tackle the social ramifications of technologies developed by firms such as OpenAI, which is Altman's other company. Also, in exchange for generating World ID, the startup gives cryptocurrency — called WorldCoin — rewards. Users can then save, send, deposit and withdraw cryptocurrency through the startup's mobile app, known as World App. The World App. Credit: World was founded in 2023 internationally, and found traction in developing countries such as Kenya and Indonesia (the Orbs were installed at 17 locations in India as well). The startup stayed away from the US initially due to the Biden administration's stringent cryptocurrency policies. However, this changed after the return of President Donald Trump to the White House in January, laying the ground for the startup's entry into the US. How does one create a World ID? The World ID is generated after the user gets their eyeballs scanned by the Orb, a glowing white sphere which looks like something out of a Black Mirror episode. 'Then they [users] follow a few instructions on a smartphone app and receive a unique biometric identifier that is storedon their device. There are baked-in privacy features, and the company says it doesn't store the images of users' irises, only a numerical code that corresponds to them,' according to a report in The New York Times. Apart from the Orbs, World has also launched the Orb Mini. It has the familiar shape of a smartphone and is designed to be portable, but serves the same purpose as the larger device. What are the concerns around the startup? Although World has insisted that it does not store the images of users' irises, its biometric data collection has faced opposition from privacy advocates and regulators. For instance, the startup was temporarily banned in several countries, including Kenya, Portugal, and Spain, and was ordered to stop operations in Hong Kong and Brazil. Wired.
