OpenAI announced Monday that it has confidentially filed for an IPO in what could be one of the defining public offerings of the decade. Business Insider reports that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s other company, Tools for Humanity, is also cutting jobs. TechCrunch has reached out to the company for confirmation.
You might know more about Tools for Humanity through its validation project known as World and its associated device, a creepy silver orb that attempts to scan your eyeballs. The idea is that the company will be able to use its proprietary iris scans to verify people’s identities, allowing it to distinguish between human activity and bot activity in the increasingly automated world that Tools for Humanity co-founder and chairman Altman is building. The company also plans to use these scans to verify people’s identities and support transactions in its own cryptocurrency, WorldCoin.
These vague and questionable ambitions were enough to raise funding at a $2.5 billion valuation from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and other funds that back blockchain companies. However, the company is currently reportedly scaling back its operations as it struggles to generate revenue.
In the U.S., companies like Tinder, Zoom and Docusign have partnered with Altman on side projects. Internationally, Tools for Humanity faces regulatory and ethical concerns. For example, in Kenya, India, and Hong Kong, people were offered $50 worth of World Coins in exchange for their biometric data. Kenya later banned World from operating in the country, citing privacy and financial concerns. Meanwhile, South Korea fined the company $830,000 for violating local privacy laws.
Who would have thought? People don’t feel good about giving their biometric data to a startup in exchange for $50 worth of cryptocurrency.
