OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) company co-founded and helmed by Sam Altman, is reportedly in partnership talks with Tools For Humanity’s Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency-based universal basic income and identity verification firm also co-founded by Sam Altman.
Bloomberg recently reported that the two firms are in negotiations for a partnership that would see OpenAI providing AI solutions and services to Worldcoin with the possibility for further synergy down the road.
Any partnership between OpenAI and Worldcoin would almost certainly draw additional regulatory scrutiny, given Altman’s status within both firms.
Per Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania, speaking to Bloomberg:
“I think it’s just because of Sam. Just, like, much more attention than you would usually face as a company of that size or a project of that size.”
It’s unclear exactly what Blania might have meant by those comments, as Worldcoin is currently among the world’s most active universal basic income and identity verification services, with an average of two million users per day.
Related: Worldcoin reaches 10M users, 70M transactions and at least 13 goats bought
Controversy and regulatory scrutiny are nothing new for either company. OpenAI recently outlasted threats to investigate its partnership with Microsoft as a merger by European Union authorities, ultimately dodging the allegations entirely.
And Worldcoin has faced bans in Portugal, Kenya and Spain in the first three months of 2024 alone.
Worldcoin has so far spent the better part of 2024 looking to expand its operations. As Cointelegraph recently reported, the firm launched its own blockchain, a layer-2 solution that prioritizes verified Worldcoin users — humans — over bots.
On the cryptocurrency side of things, Worldcoin recently announced it would increase its WLD token supply by 36 million — currently worth around $196 million — over the next six months as part of a sell-off to select institutions.
This comes as the token’s popularity — at least as far as distribution is concerned — continues to rise. Semafor reports that despite having somewhere between 300 and 500 of the company’s “orbs” in the field, they’re currently facing a shortage.
Orbs are the hardware that Worldcoin uses to scan users’ irises — a part of the human eye considered unique, like our fingerprints — to register and confirm their digital identity. Those who sign up for the service in areas where it’s available can have their eyes scanned to receive 10 WLD tokens — currently trading at $4.81 as of the time of this article’s publication — plus an additional two every month after.