Worldcoin: Sam Altman of OpenAI launches a crypto project

[ad_1]

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images/FILE

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during an event at Keio University on June 12, 2023 in Tokyo, Japan.

Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched on Monday.

The project’s main offering is its World ID, which the company describes as a digital passport to prove that its holder is a real human, and not an AI robot. To obtain a World ID, a customer signs up to perform an iris scan in person using the Worldcoins orb, a silver ball about the size of a bowling ball. Once the iris scan of the orbs has verified that the person is a real human, it creates a global identifier.

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

The project has 2 million users since its beta period, and with Monday’s launch, Worldcoin is expanding its orbing operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an incentive, those who register in certain countries will receive the Worldcoins WLD cryptocurrency token.

The price of WLD rose in early trading on Monday. On the world’s largest exchange, Binance, it peaked at $5.29 and at 1000 GMT was at $2.49 from a starting price of $0.15, after seeing $25.1 million in trading volume, according to the Binances website.

Blockchains can store global identifiers in a way that preserves privacy and cannot be controlled or shut down by a single entity, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters.

The project says global identifiers will be needed in the age of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce remarkably human-like language. Global identifiers could be used to tell the difference between real people and AI robots online.

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

People will be supercharged by AI, which will have massive economic implications, he said.

One example Altman likes is Universal Basic Income, or UBI, a social benefits program usually run by governments where every individual is entitled to payments. Because AI will increasingly do the work people do now, Altman thinks UBI can help tackle income inequality. Since only real people can have global IDs, this could be used to reduce fraud when deploying UBI.

Altman said he thinks a world with UBI will be far in the future and he doesn’t have a clear idea of ​​which entity might distribute money, but Worldcoin is laying the groundwork for it to become a reality.

We think we have to start experimenting with things in order to know what to do, he said.

[ad_2]