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Sam Altman’s project World looks to scale its human verification empire. First stop: Tinder.

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At a trendy venue near the San Francisco pier, Sam Altman’s verification project World celebrated its next evolution and rapid expansion of its ambitions.  And it’s starting with Tinder.

Tools for Humanity (TFH), the company behind the World project, announced Friday plans to integrate its verification tech into dating apps, event and concert ticketing systems, business organizations, email, and other arenas of public life.

“The world is getting close to very powerful AI, and this is doing a lot of wonderful things,” said Altman, speaking before a packed crowd at The Midway. “We are also heading to a world now where there’s going to be more stuff generated by AI than by humans,” he added. “I’m sure many of you [have had moments] where you’re like, ‘Am I interacting with an AI or a person, or how much of each, and how do I know?”

World (formerly Worldcoin) distinguishes itself from many of its ID verification peers by offering the ability to verify that a real, living human is using a digital service while still protecting that person’s anonymity. There is some complex cryptographic alchemy behind this (something called “zero-knowledge proof-based authentication”). The upshot: The company is creating what it calls “proof of human” tools, which are mechanisms that can verify human activity in a world rife with AI agents and bots.

Its chief tool for verification is a spherical digital reader called the Orb that scans a user’s eyes, converting their iris into a unique and anonymous cryptographic identifier (known as a verified World ID). This can then be used to access World’s services, although users can also access World’s app without one.

Altman kept his remarks brief on Friday (TFH’s co-founder and CEO, Alex Blania, was absent due to a last-minute hand surgery, Altman said). He then turned much of the presentation over to World’s chief product officer, Tiago Sada, and his team.

Sada explained that World was launching the newest version of its app (the last version was launched at an event in December), along with a plethora of new integrations for its technology.

World has been preparing, for some time, to deploy a verification service for dating apps — most notably, Tinder. Last year, Tinder launched a World ID pilot program in Japan. That pilot was apparently a success because World announced that Tinder would be launching its verification integration in global markets —including the U.S. The program integrates a World ID emblem into the profiles of users who have gone through its verification processes, thus authenticating them as a real person.

Image Credits:World

World is also courting the entertainment industry by launching a new feature called Concert Kit, where musical artists can reserve a certain number of concert tickets for World ID-verified humans. This is designed to ensure that fans are safe from scalpers who often use automated ticket-buying bots to scarf up seats. Concert Kit is compatible with major ticketing systems, including Ticketmaster and Eventbrite, and the company is promoting it via partnerships 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 some aimed at businesses. A Zoom/World ID verification integration seeks to battle a supposed deepfake threat to business calls, and a Docusign partnership is designed to ensure signatures come from authentic users.

The company is also working on a number of features in anticipation of the Wild West of the agentic web, including one called “agent delegation,” in which a person can delegate their World ID to an agent to carry out online activities on their behalf. A partnership with authentication firm Okta has also created a system (currently in beta) that verifies that an agent is acting on behalf of a human. The system is set up so that a World ID can be tied to a specific agent and then, when the agent goes out into the web to operate on that person’s behalf, websites will know a verified person is behind the behavior, said Okta’s chief product officer, Gareth Davies, at the event.

So far, it’s been difficult for World to scale, due largely to the verification process itself. For much of the company’s history, to get its gold standard, you had to travel to one of its offices and have your eyeballs scanned by an Orb — a fairly inconvenient (not to mention weird) experience.

Image Credits:World

However, World has continually made moves to increase the ease and incentive structure for verification. In the past, it offered its crypto asset, Worldcoin, to some members who signed up and has distributed its Orbs into big retail chains so that users can verify themselves while they’re out shopping or getting a coffee. Now the company is announcing that it is significantly expanding its Orb saturation in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The company also promoted a service where interested users could have World bring an Orb to their location for remote verification.

In a conversation with TechCrunch, Sada also shared that World has attempted to solve the scaling problem by creating different tiers of verification. The highest tier is Orb verification, but below that, World has previously offered a mid-level tier, which uses an anonymized scan of an official government ID via the card’s NFC chip.

The company also introduced a low-level tier, or what Sada called “low friction”— meaning low effort, I guess, but also “low security” — which involves merely taking a selfie.

Selfie Check, which Sada’s team presented during the event, is designed to maintain user privacy.

“Selfie is private by design,” said Daniel Shorr, one of TFH’s executives, during the presentation. “That means that we maximize the local processing that’s happening on your device, on your phone, which means that your images are yours.”

Selfie verification obviously isn’t new, and fraudsters have long managed to spoof it. “Obviously, we do our best, and it’s like one of the best systems that you’ll see for this. But it has limits,” Sada told TechCrunch. Developers looking to integrate World’s services can choose from the three different verification tiers depending on the level of security that’s important to them, he noted.

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Court orders ADC welfare secretary to pay N100m damages to two judges

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The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the National Welfare Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nkemakolam Ukandu, to pay a total of N100 million in damages to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, and Justice Peter Lifu over a suit the court struck out for lack of diligent prosecution.

Justice Salim Ibrahim, who delivered the ruling on Monday, ordered Ukandu to pay N50 million each to Justice Tsoho and Justice Lifu within 14 days.

The order followed an oral application by counsel to the two judges, Mr J. U. K. Igwe, SAN.

Earlier, Justice Ibrahim struck out Ukandu’s suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1165/2026, after finding that the plaintiff had failed to diligently prosecute the matter.

Ukandu had sued the National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Tsoho and Justice Lifu over allegations of judicial bias and disobedience to court orders. He sought an order compelling the NJC to investigate claims of corruption, abuse of judicial powers, and bias allegedly committed by the two judges.

However, the plaintiff and his lawyer repeatedly failed to appear before Justice Ibrahim after the case was assigned to him.

The judge had, on June 30, warned that the suit could be dismissed if neither Ukandu nor his counsel appeared at subsequent proceedings.

The case arose from the ongoing leadership dispute within the ADC involving an aggrieved party member, Nafiu-Bala Gombe, whose substantive suit is pending before Justice Lifu.

Gombe is seeking a court order restraining the leadership of the party, led by former Senate President David Mark, from presenting themselves as the legitimate leaders of the ADC.

Ukandu, who is seeking to be joined in that case, accused Justice Tsoho and Justice Lifu of manifest bias and alleged that they were acting in the interest of certain individuals against the party.

In his originating suit, Ukandu challenged the decision of the Chief Judge to reassign the leadership dispute from Justice Emeka Nwite to Justice Lifu, arguing that the reassignment violated both an earlier order of Justice Nwite and a decision of the Supreme Court.

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Stan Okoye Shuts Down ‘Saviour’ Claims After D’Tigers Revive World Cup Qualification Hopes

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D’Tigers forward Stan Okoye has dismissed claims that he single-handedly rescued Nigeria’s 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification campaign, insisting the team’s recent resurgence was built on collective effort rather than individual brilliance.

Okoye played a key role as Nigeria secured crucial victories during the latest qualification window in Luanda, Angola, defeating Tunisia, Guinea and Rwanda to breathe new life into their World Cup hopes under new head coach David Fizdale.

Read Also: Statement Made! D’Tigers Complete Perfect 3-0 Sweep With 44-Point Rout of Rwanda | Sports247 Nigeria

The experienced guard, one of the leaders in the D’Tigers squad, believes the team’s turnaround was largely due to the return of several core players who brought quality, experience and stability to the squad.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say one player rescued the team. This was a collective effort, and everyone contributed to the victories,” Okoye said.

Nigeria entered the qualification window under pressure after a difficult start to the campaign, but three consecutive wins have dramatically improved the country’s chances of progressing to the next phase of the African qualifiers.

Okoye credited the improved squad depth and team spirit for the impressive performances, stressing that the players remained focused on achieving the objective rather than seeking individual recognition.

“We had more of our core players available this time, and that made a big difference. Our focus was on getting the results Nigeria needed, not on individual performances,” he added.

The former Basket Zaragoza and Gran Canaria star also revealed that the team drew motivation from Nigeria’s position in the FIBA world rankings, with the players determined to restore the country’s status among Africa’s basketball elite.

With momentum now firmly on Nigeria’s side, Okoye believes D’Tigers have laid a strong foundation for the remainder of the qualification campaign, expressing confidence that the team can continue building under Fizdale as they pursue a place at the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

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