At a trendy venue near the San Francisco pier, Sam Altman’s verification projectWorld 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.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Okolosi Ator, has won the Udu State Constituency bye-election in Delta State.
Ator won with 8,724 votes, defeating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, who polled 214 votes.
In a congratulatory message, the state Chairman of the party, Chief Solomon Arenyeka, commended the people of Udu for turning out to exercise their civic responsibilities, noting that their participation had further strengthened the democratic process in the constituency.
He described Ator’s victory as a reflection of the confidence reposed in him by the people of Udu and a demonstration of their commitment to democratic participation.
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He said the turnout was an indication that the people understood the power of their votes and the importance of electing representatives who would advance their interests.
The APC chairman urged Ator to see his victory as a call to greater service, humility and dedication to the people, stressing that the mandate entrusted to him came with the responsibility to represent the interests of his constituents diligently and transparently.
Arenyeka also appreciated APC members, supporters, stakeholders and other citizens who contributed to the peaceful conduct of the election, while urging the newly elected lawmaker to extend a hand of fellowship to all constituents irrespective of political affiliation.
He expressed optimism that the new mandate would provide an opportunity for greater representation and constructive engagement in the interest of the people of Udu State Constituency and Delta State.
The state APC chairman further congratulated Ator and wished him a successful tenure in office.
Troops under Operation Enduring Peace have rescued two kidnapping victims and arrested 12 suspects in separate operations across Plateau State.
The operation’s Media Information Officer, Captain Polycarp Oteh, disclosed this in a statement issued on Sunday.
According to Oteh, the first operation took place on Saturday when troops of Sector 1, Sub-Sector 12, acting on intelligence, moved against suspected kidnappers operating around Rayfield and other areas of Jos North Local Government Area.
The troops searched suspected criminal locations in Shere, Gwafan and Maza Hills, where 11 suspects were taken into custody.
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Oteh said the operation was also aided by information obtained from two people who had allegedly been kidnapped from Gwafan Community on September 18.
He said the victims later identified three of the suspects as alleged members of the group involved in their abduction.
In Bassa Local Government Area, troops from Sector 3 also carried out a search operation following intelligence about suspected criminal activities.
The operation, conducted at about 6 pm on Saturday, resulted in the arrest of another suspect and the seizure of a locally manufactured rifle.
Meanwhile, troops operating in Mangu Local Government Area intercepted another suspected criminal during a patrol along the Tul, Ntam, Angwan Mata and Deng-Deng axis.
The suspect was arrested near the Water Board area after allegedly trying to hide a weapon when he noticed the soldiers.
A search uncovered a locally fabricated automatic firearm, nine rounds of 7.62mm Special ammunition and a mobile phone.
The military said all 12 suspects were being held for further investigation.
Oteh said investigators were working to establish the suspects’ roles in the alleged criminal activities, identify other members of the syndicate and support further operations to apprehend those still at large.