Global leaders are raising eyebrows over Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project to advocate that humans are different from AI by scanning irises to access cryptocurrency, as the WSJ has highlighted.
Worldcoin is an organization that started in 2019 with the goal of providing universal basic income to those affected by AI; the organization has already taken over 6m scans of its users from over 38 countries. Participants are enrolled and given a ‘World ID’ passport and a ‘WLD,’ the digital currency of Worldcoin.
Worldcoin was formed in the Cayman Islands and has been involved in some interesting regulatory issues. It has been raided in Hong Kong, banned or blocked in Spain, fined in Argentina, and is under criminal probe in Kenya for taking biometric details. Risk and legal issues are the possible invasion of privacy of data and scanning of children.
In return, Worldcoin believes that its technology is safe in the sense that orbs erase the picture after authenticating it, while iris codes don’t include anyone’s information unless they permit it. In Kenya, for instance, the site attracted half a million sign-ups within the first three months. This followed police investigations, which culminated in a public inquiry in which Altman had to testify.
The European Union has also launched investigations into Worldcoin’s data collection methods. The digital WLD coin has a total market capitalization of about $15 billion, and the firm owns 97% of the tokens.
