World puzzled by lack of public trust in massive technology corporations

Sam Altman and Alex Blania, figureheads and evangelists for cryptically related firms World and Tools for Humanity, recently spoke at the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) 2025 Global Privacy Summit to address privacy concerns about World’s iris scanning and proof of personhood scheme. Their main messages, according to a blog post from the IAPP, are that people will stop worrying once everyone is using World, and that everyone should enrol in the World Network because that way it will work best.

“This technology, as well as many other technologies, only really matters and only really is powerful if it gets to wide adoption, if a lot of people actually use it,” says Blania.

He and Altman insist that World’s iris biometrics system is anonymous, more privacy-preserving than existing systems, and that “the actual fundamental properties of the technology” are “something that all of us want and we will want for the future of the internet.”

Altman even expresses a degree of bafflement at the notion that Silicon Valley firms do not take data privacy seriously. “I am not sure where the perception comes from,” he says. “I guess in a previous generation of the internet, maybe it was not as universally acknowledged how important this is, but certainly now I see nothing but extreme focus from boards and CEOs on this.”

In 2023, the Italian Data Protection Authority fined OpenAI, of which Sam Altman is CEO, €15 million (US$17M) for failing to inform of a data breach that occurred in March of that year.

World aims to solve AI content crisis largely created by ChatGPT

In keeping with its plan for a global takeover in 2025, World continues to make the case that its platform is necessary in an age of the deepfakes, bots and so-called AI-slop that its co-founder helped usher into the world via the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“Trust and consumer experiences online are worsening as ‘AI slop’ takes over our timelines,” says a new post on the World blog. Moreover, “whether they are driving your attention to low-quality websites covered in ads, trying to trick you into sharing private information or selling you the latest must-have gadget,” the data shows more and more people are mistaking bots for people they can trust.

The situation is dire; World’s post notes how “a recent World-commissioned survey of 2,000 American adults found that over three-quarters of respondents say the internet has ‘never been worse’ in terms of differentiating between real and artificial content; respondents believe half of the news stories and articles they see online feature some element of AI; and only 30 percent of respondents could tell the difference between business reviews written by humans and those written by AI.”

“This is more than a content moderation problem or a platform policy decision. It’s a systemic issue affecting social trust, civic discourse, consumer rights and regulatory compliance.”

Given the gravity of the problem, there would seem to be a much easier solution to this than World is proposing. A study from Copyleaks found that between 2022, when ChatGPT launched, and 2024, AI-generated content grew by 8000 percent.

Progress in Asia sees World integrate with ad firm, solve sneaker crisis

Sam Altman’s flagship tool is responsible for most of the content World is worried about.

But instead of turning off the hose, Altman and Blania are selling towels. And it is working: a separate blog says World is “quietly gaining notable traction” in Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

“In January, Singapore posted its most monthly verifications ever, over 15,800, to surpass 100,000 total. Japan, meanwhile, verified over 100,000 people in 2024 alone. And Korea just achieved over 10,000 verifications in the first three weeks of April.”

To service these unique markets, World has adapted its universal digital identity scheme with culturally specific features. In Korea, it has partnered with SuperWalk, “a move-to-earn application, to tap into the running craze and its communities.” In Japan, it has integrated with Hakuhodo, the country’s second-largest marketing agency, which “wants to build a fraud-proof ad network so that it can affordably reach more unique humans.” And in Singapore, it “popped up at Sneaker Con Southeast Asia to verify attendees, many of whom are fed up with limited edition sneakers getting sniped by bots.”

Addressing the world’s most pressing problems, indeed.

Nonetheless, there may be a thin but formidable force field standing between World and world domination: the humble contact lens.

This week, according to eWeek, a CNN reporter tried to scan their iris using World’s spherical Orb capture device –  and found that their blue-light-blocking contacts interfered with the scan, preventing it from capturing biometric data.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  data privacy  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  iris biometrics  |  proof of personhood  |  Tools for Humanity  |  World  |  World ID  |  World ID Orb