OpenAI’s Sam Altman Highlights Importance of Worldcoin Global Identity Project as AI Picks Pace

Worldcoin aims to eliminate the need for humans to share their personal details like names, numbers, and email IDs to engage with technology.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 18 December 2023 17:46 IST

OpenAI’s Sam Altman Highlights Importance of Worldcoin Global Identity Project as AI Picks Pace

Photo Credit: Reuters

Worldcoin is Sam Altman’s initiative headquartered in US’ San Francisco

Highlights

Worldcoin aims to issue a global identity of individual humans
Worldcoin is looking for investments of at least up to $50 million
Earlier this year the project bagged $115 million in funding

The buzz around the Worldcoin project rose and fizzled in days around August this year. Some much needed support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to this project, however, has propelled the Worldcoin initiative back onto the headlines. Altman was recently speaking in an interview when he lauded the concept of the Worldcoin project. The web3 initiative, brainchild of Altman himself, aims to issue a global identity of individual humans on blockchain to distinguish them from AI and robots.

In conversation with investment bank FT Partners, Altman reportedly said, “in a world with a lot of AI, knowing who is human matters more and more.”

This statement from OpenAI's chief came just days after reports surfaced that Worldcoin's parent company called Tools for Humanity was looking to bag a funding of at least up to $50 million (roughly Rs. 415 crore). To do so, the company is selling Worldcoin ‘s native WLD tokens at slashed prices.

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After governments of multiple countries opened inquiries on Worldcoin, it may have resulted in some slowdown for the project's fundings. For the authorities of Kenya, Germany, and the UK, among other nations – Worldcoin's requirement for people to register their iris scans did not bode well. The Kenyan law enforcement officers, in particular, also seized Worldcoin's records and Orb machines to be investigated by Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters.

Earlier this year in May, investment firms like Blockchain Capital, a16z crypto, and Bain Capital Crypto injected $115 million (roughly Rs. 955 crore) into Worldcoin in a Series C funding round.

Since August this year, the project has stayed away from the spotlight up until now when Altman said, “the belief was and is that as AI becomes an increasingly important part of our lives...the ability to identify unique humans was going to be more and more important."

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The San Francisco, US-based company is looking to assign ‘World IDs' to global citizenry. With this ‘international proof of personhood', Worldcoin believes that people will no longer need to share their personal details like names, numbers, and email IDs in order to connect with websites.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Worldcoin, AI

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More