Sam Altman’s World Project is looking to scale its human authentication regime. The first place: Tinder.
In a fashionable neighborhood near San Francisco’s waterfront, Sam Altman’s project to ensure the World celebrated its next evolution and the rapid expansion of its ambitions. And it starts with Tinder.
Tools for Humanity (TFH), the company behind the global project, announced on Friday plans to integrate its authentication technology into dating apps, event and concert ticketing systems, business associations, email, and other social life platforms.
“The world is moving towards a very powerful AI, and this is doing a lot of great things,” Altman said, speaking before a packed crowd at Midway. “And we’re heading towards a world now where there will be more things produced by AI than humans,” he added. “I’m sure many of you [have had moments] where you’re like, ‘Am I interacting with an AI or a human, or how much of each, and how do I know?
World (formerly Worldcoin) differentiates itself from many of its ID-verifying peers by offering the ability to verify that a real, live person is using a digital service while still protecting that person’s anonymity. There is a complex cryptographic alchemy behind this (something called “zero-knowledge proof-based authentication”). Conclusion: The company is creating what it calls “human proof” tools, which are ways to verify human activity in a world full of AIs and bots.
Its primary authentication tool is a circular digital reader called the Orb that scans the user’s eyes, converting their iris into a unique and anonymous cryptographic identifier (known as a verified World ID). This can be used to access World services, although users can also access the World application without one.
Altman kept his comments brief on Friday (TFH’s founder and CEO, Alex Blania, was absent due to last-minute hand surgery, Altman said). He then forwarded the bulk of the presentations to the global product manager, Tiago Sada, and his team.
Sada explained that the World presents a new version of its application (the last version was presented at the December event), as well as a number of new integrations of its technology.
The world has been preparing, for a long time, to use a verification service for dating apps – specifically, Tinder. Last year, Tinder launched a World ID test program in Japan. That pilot was apparently successful because World announced that Tinder will introduce its authentication integration in global markets—including the US.
World also favors the entertainment industry by introducing a new feature called Concert Kit, where music artists can reserve a certain number of concert tickets for World ID-verified people. This is designed to ensure fans are safe from scalpers who often use automated ticketing bots to inflate seats. The Concert Kit is compatible with major ticketing systems, including Ticketmaster and Eventbrite, and the company is promoting it through a partnership with 30 Seconds to Mars and Bruno Mars – both of whom plan to use it for their upcoming tours.
The event was full of many other announcements, including those aimed at businesses. Zoom’s global authentication/ID integration aims to combat the perceived threat of seriousness in business calls, and the Docusign partnership is designed to ensure that signatures come from real users.
The company is also working on many features in anticipation of the Wild West of the agent web, including one called “agent deployment,” where a person can transfer their global ID to an agent to perform online transactions on their behalf. A partnership with authentication company Okta has also created a system (currently in beta) that verifies that an agent is acting for a person. The system is designed so that World ID is tied to a specific agent and then when the agent goes out on the web to work on behalf of that person, websites will know that there is a verified person doing this, said Okta’s chief product officer, Gareth Davies, at the event.
Until now, it has been difficult for the Earth to measure, due in large part to the verification process itself. For most of the company’s history, to get its gold standard, you had to go to one of its offices and get your eyeballs tested with an Orb – a negative (not to mention weird) experience.
However, the World has been taking steps to increase the flexibility and incentive structure to ensure it. In the past, it has offered its crypto asset, Worldcoin, to other registered members and distributed its Orbs to major retail chains so that users can authenticate themselves while shopping or getting a coffee. Now the company is announcing that it is significantly expanding its Orb traffic in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The company also promoted a service where interested users could have World deliver the Orb to their location for remote verification.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Sada also shared that World has tried to solve the scaling problem by creating separate layers of validation. The top tier is Orb authentication, but below that, World offers an intermediate tier, which uses an anonymous scan of an official government ID using the card’s NFC chip.
The company is also introducing a low-risk category, or what Sada calls “low-friction”—meaning low-effort, I guess, but also “low-security”—which involves taking a selfie.
Selfie Check, introduced by Sada’s team during the event, is designed to protect users’ privacy.
“Selfie is private by design,” said Daniel Shorr, one of TFH’s CEOs, during the launch. “That means we’re increasing the spatial processing that happens on your device, on your phone, which means your photos are yours.”
Selfie verification is obviously not new, and fraudsters have been able to fool it for a long time. “Obviously, we’re doing our best, and it’s like the best system you’ll ever see. But it has limitations,” Sada told TechCrunch. Developers who want to integrate Global services can choose from three different levels of authentication depending on the level of security that is important to them, he noted.
