The AI Gold Rush Will Take Humanity to Some Dark Places
Bloomberg Opinion
23-05-23 04:00
Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency initiative backed by Silicon Valley luminaries such as Marc Andreessen and Sam Bankman-Fried, is gaining renewed momentum with its plan to create “World ID,” which will use the biometric data of iris scans to distinguish between people and bots. The scheme garnered negative feedback for scanning half a million irises during its “field test” using a chrome sphere named “the orb,” though it still has a valuation of $1bn and is allegedly about to secure a further $100m. Critics claim the Worldcoin Foundation, which was established by its digital-token allocation system and claims a database of 1.7 million iris-originated codes, lacks transparency, as it is based in the Cayman Islands. Some hackers have also stolen credentials from its employee "operators," including recruiters who sign people up. The company now hopes to integrate its app, which offers crypto transactions, with more traditional financial services in future.