US tech entrepreneur Sam Altman’s biometric device The Orb – which distinguishes between real people and AI bots, helping to verify who is human online – is to be launched in the UK.
Altman has been instrumental in making AI accessible to people through OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool, which launched in November 2022, boasts over 400 million weekly active users.
Having unleashed AI to the masses, Altman is now developing technologies to resolve challenges his company’s pursuit of powerful AI has caused, such as the proliferation of deepfakes.
This is being addressed through Tools For Humanity, a company he co-founded in 2019.
One of the technologies Tools For Humanity has developed is called the Orb, a biometric device that scans people’s irises to prove their humanity, helping to differentiate humans from AI agents and bots online.
Altman also co-founded Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project that leverages the Orb’s technology to provide individuals with a World ID, a digital proof of humanity. Those who undergo iris scans via the Orb receive cryptocurrency tokens, known as Worldcoins, as an incentive for their participation.
Having launched in the US in May, the Worldcoin eyeball-scanning digital ID project is now expanding to the UK, starting with London.
This will see Orbs installed in various public spaces, such as shopping centres and on the high street, allowing people to use them as they would an ATM.
Adrian Ludwig, chief architect at Tools For Humanity, told The Financial Times (FT): “The UK is certainly one of the more influential markets in the world … it punches well above its weight globally.”
The UK population, he added, “is significantly online [and] is already well aware of the impact AI is going to have. In the UK over 75% of citizens speak to having been [impacted] by AI on nearly a daily basis.”
According to Tools For Humanity, within two years more than 90% of online content will be machine generated, which will mean it could be almost impossible to distinguish computers from people.
It argues that a verification tool such as World ID is essential to help combat deepfake accounts and prevent fraud and identity theft.
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