As a seasoned researcher with a knack for deciphering the intricacies of emerging technologies and their potential implications, I find myself both intrigued and slightly skeptical about Sam Altman’s World project, now rebranded as “World.” The concept of an identity-verification system that aims to prove humanity anonymously online is indeed innovative, but the execution seems a tad overambitious.


Sam Altman’s Worldcoin initiative is shortening its name to just ‘Orb’ and launching a quicker, less complex version for scanning the irises of numerous individuals worldwide.

Currently referred to as “World,” the project aims to eventually establish a system verifying identities, enabling individuals to confirm their humanity anonymously on the internet. To achieve this, it has already introduced a series of Orbs with peculiar shapes that scan people’s eyes, offering WLD crypto tokens and a global ID in exchange for participation.

At a public gathering, the charismatic AI prodigy Altman and his partner Alex Blania took center stage to reveal the next generation of World’s project, named “Orb 2.0.” This updated version will be easier and quicker to construct using fewer components, will operate more swiftly with advanced chips, and will be powered by open-source programming code.

According to chief designer Rich Heley, what we currently have is not enough – we need a significant increase, roughly an additional thousand orbs. Moreover, it’s not just about having more orbs; we also require them to be distributed in more locations.

The world is introducing “premium verification experiences” in Buenos Aires and Mexico City, which essentially means setting up storefronts filled with orbs. Additionally, these orbs will be placed in everyday locations such as a neighborhood coffee shop. In the near future, individuals can also request orbs to their residence via an app, similar to ordering a pizza, as mentioned by Heley.

As these spheres serve as anchors for humanity’s milestone in the World, the initiative additionally aims to expedite the acceptance of its global identification system. This can be achieved by allowing individuals to easily join through the submission of their official government IDs.

In simpler terms, Adiran Ludwig, the Chief Information Security Officer, stated that since they didn’t use an orb for identification, we can’t confirm if they are human. However, we only know they possess a passport. Later, he mentioned that this onboarding process includes extra steps to prevent deepfakes.

With a service named World ID Deep Faces, internet users can verify that the individuals they believe they’re interacting with online are authentic and not manipulated by deepfakes – provided they possess a World ID.

The token WLD, fell about 5% after the presentation.

Read More

2024-10-17 21:15