Members of the public are invited to have their eyeballs scanned by a silver orb as part of a cryptocurrency project that aims to use biometric verification to distinguish humans from AI systems.
People who sign up for the Worldcoin scheme through an app this week will receive a "genesis grant" of 25 tokens, equivalent to around ยฃ40, after one of the bowling-ball-sized devices scans their iris.
Once users have their eyes scanned, they will receive a world ID, which according to the scheme will prove that they are a โreal and unique personโ while preserving your privacy and a crypto wallet on your smartphone.
The project was launched by Sam Altman of the machine learning research firm open AIand on Tuesday the London orb on Techspace Worship Street, near Old Street tube station, was busy with potential users.
Worldcoin promises that those who scan their irises will have their privacy protected. However, the Information Commissioner's Office, the data regulator, said it was looking into the scheme, telling Reuters: "We took note of the launch of Worldcoin in the UK and will be conducting further investigations."
According to the company, Worldcoin will be a way to distinguish between real "verified humans" and AI systems. It seeks to establish universal access to the global economy "regardless of country or origin," and is described in its website as an opportunity to establish โa place for all to benefit in the age of AIโ.
The Worldcoin protocol works by granting biometrically verified users a digital identity in the form of a Worldcoin token, which it claims to be the first cryptographic token to be distributed globally and freely to people just for being a real and unique person. Users will also gain access to the global app that enables global payments, purchases, and transfers using digital assets and traditional currencies.
The project, in the works for more than three years and co-founded by Altman and a theoretical physics student, Alex Bania, officially launched Monday with 2 million users from 33 countries that registered and underwent scans in its testing stages, predominantly from Europe, India and southern Africa.
Altman and Banya saying: โWorldcoin is an attempt to align on a global scale, the journey will be challenging and the outcome is uncertain. But finding new ways to broadly share the coming technological prosperity is a critical challenge of our time.โ
Altman, whose company is responsible for creating the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot and the Dall-E 2 imager, has called AI regulation "essential"and has supported regulated gatekeepers of technology that would seek to minimize harm while enabling the benefits of artificial intelligence.
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The launch of Worldcoin has been the subject of worldwide attention, with many opinions divided. Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, reacted to Worldcoin's aspirations for "alignment on a global scale" with one word: "cute."
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum network, shared his conflicting thoughts on the launch of Worldcoin in a long form essay on Twitter and warned against relying too heavily on orbs to scan with their "dystopian vibe".
"The problem of creating an effective and reliable personality testing system, especially in the hands of people distant from the existing crypto community, seems quite challenging," Buterin said.
