OpenAI CEO launches project to differentiate humans from AI – 07/24/2023 – Tech

Worldcoin, a project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was launched this Monday (24). The core of the project is the World ID, which the company describes as a “digital passport” to prove its holder is a real human being, not an AI (artificial intelligence) robot.

To obtain a World ID, a customer signs up for an in-person iris scan using a Worldcoin orb, a silver ball about the size of a bowling ball. When the iris scan by the orb verifies that the person is a real human being, it creates a World ID.

The company behind Worldcoin is Tools for Humanity, based in San Francisco and Berlin.

The project has two million users in its beta period, and with this Monday’s launch, Worldcoin is expanding “orbing” operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an enticement, those who register in certain countries will receive Worldcoin’s WLD cryptocurrency token.

The price of WLD rose in early trading on Monday. On the world’s cryptocurrency exchange Binance, it peaked at $5.29.

Blockchains can store World IDs in a way that preserves privacy and cannot be controlled or closed by a single entity, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters.

The project says that World IDs will be needed in the era of generative AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, from Altman’s own OpenAI, which produce remarkably human language. World IDs could be used to differentiate real people from online AI bots.

Altman told Reuters that Worldcoin can also help address how the economy will be reshaped by generative AI.

“People will be overwhelmed by AI, which will have huge economic implications,” he said.

One example Altman likes to cite is universal basic income, or UBI, a welfare program usually administered by governments in which every individual is entitled to payments. As AI “will increasingly do the work that people do now,” Altman believes UBI can help tackle income inequality.

As only real people can have worldwide IDs, this could be used to reduce fraud when implementing basic income.

Altman said that he thinks a world with UBI is “very far in the future” and that he doesn’t have a clear idea about which entity could distribute money, but that Worldcoin lays the groundwork for that to become a reality.

“We think we need to start doing experiments to figure out what to do,” he said.