Worldcoin launches a project to protect against deepfakes through eye scanning technology

With the inventor of ChatGPT OpenAI, co-founder Sam Altman opened the door to artificial intelligence that can imitate humans. Through the Global Identification Project, he now wants to ensure that real people can be distinguished from software copies found on the Internet. To do this, people must create a profile – a “global identity” – with an eye scan. You can only do this with a spherical scanner from World called Orb.

Among other things, World wants to address the problem of so-called fake videos, in which fake recordings of real people that look deceptively real are created using artificial intelligence software. One of the biggest concerns right now is that scammers are trying to trick employees into making money transfers by making a video call with their alleged boss.

A universal solution called “deep face” is to match video clips with images taken when examining eyes. The company wants to offer its camera interface on users' devices, so that collaboration between technology platforms will not be necessary.

World announced that the software will be compatible with widely used video applications such as WhatsApp, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Apple Facetime. However, recognition only works for people who have registered with World.

World originally started as a project with cryptocurrency elements under the name Worldcoin. The shortened name and new version of the orb scanners were unveiled at an event in San Francisco on Thursday.

There have been privacy concerns regarding Worldcoin's native technology solutions in several countries. The introduction was halted in Spain after objections from data protection advocates. However, in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, about a third of the population has had their eyes checked, according to World. In Lisbon, every seventh resident has a profile.

The company confirms that no data is stored on the celestial bodies themselves, but rather goes directly to users' devices. The world relies on blockchain technology, such as that used in digital currencies. Data sets are partitioned and the parts are stored in different locations. This is intended to make the system secure against data theft.

Altman stressed that the new era of artificial intelligence makes it especially important to be able to determine whether someone is actually human. The current infrastructure is not suitable for this.

The world also wants to cooperate with governments, said co-founder Alex Plania, who is from Germany. He stressed that the goal is not to replace national identity documents. The scientist also wants to offer governments the project's online identification technology, which only requires part of the identity data. If there was a global protocol for this, that would be a huge advantage, Plania said.

Introducing the more powerful Orb model, World also emphasized that 1,000 times more hardware will be needed for growth plans. There are even sites where you can scan. In the future, it will also be possible in Latin America, among other countries, to have the orb delivered to your home. What Orb's long-term business model should look like remained unclear until after the event.

The scanners are spherical devices that the scientist called “Orb”.

Altman's OpenAI company has sparked a global AI push with the launch of its chatbot ChatGPT.