Sam Altman's Eye-Scanning Orb Is Now Coming to the US

Sam Altman’s iris-scanning, identify-verification exertion startup is expanding to the US, and volition effort to span the disagreement betwixt blockchain-based fiscal networks and the outgo services astir often utilized here.

Altman and Alex Blania, a German physics researcher, announced astatine an lawsuit successful San Francisco this evening that their venture-backed company, Tools for Humanity, is updating its “World” products—and announcing a bid of high-profile partnerships with companies including Visa and Match Group.

World archetypal launched arsenic Worldcoin successful July 2024, the brainchild of Altman, Blania, and Max Novendstern, who is nary longer astatine the company. Blania serves arsenic CEO, portion Altman remains his astir salient backer. As of March 2025 the institution had raised $240 cardinal successful task superior backing from bold-name firms similar Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital, and Coinbase Ventures, arsenic good arsenic idiosyncratic investors similar Reid Hoffman and the now-imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried.

Altman has expressed interest astir the magnitude of fakery that caller AI tools volition enable, including the generative AI tools pioneered by his different startup, OpenAI, which is valued astatine $300 billion. So the World app, and its hardware component, are Altman’s solution to the problem. It’s a device-and-app combo that scans people’s irises, creates a unsocial idiosyncratic ID, stores that accusation connected the blockchain, and uses it arsenic a signifier of individuality verification. If capable radical astir the globe are utilizing the World app to beryllium their identity, the reasoning goes, it could ostensibly thwart scammers.

“Proving personhood” is simply a hard happening to productize, and whiffs of a scam person plagued the startup since it launched. The task has besides been scrutinized by overseas governments for its biometric data-capture and retention policies. But Altman and Blania haven’t been deterred.

Tools for Humanity says it’s expanding the World services to the US starting tomorrow, May 1. This means that US-based users of the app volition beryllium capable to motion up for World and articulation its web by having their individuality verified done the app. This individuality verification process requires that users get their eyeballs scanned, though, truthful Tools for Humanity has had to grow its carnal footprint arsenic well. The institution says it’s opening up six “Apple-like stores” successful cities crossed the US, including 1 successful San Francisco, wherever the level astir a woody operation holding astir 8 orbs was being polished connected Wednesday night.

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