Sam Altman's "proof of human" company pushes into mainstream services

Axios Axios —

A company co-founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman and known for its iris-scanning orbs announced new and expanded integrations on Friday with companies including Zoom, DocuSign, Tinder, Okta, Shopify and VanEck as it looks to grow its user base.

Why it matters: https://www.axios.com/2023/03/21/openai-sam-altman-eye-scanning-passwords" target="_blank">World, formerly known as https://www.axios.com/2024/10/17/sam-altman-worldcoin-orb-rebrand-world" target="_blank">Worldcoin, has struggled to convince everyday internet users to sign up for its identity verification system.

Driving the news: World upgraded the protocol behind its identity tool, World ID, and is open-sourcing it so any app can integrate it as an authentication layer.

  • The company is also launching a standalone World ID app, where users can store credentials and use them to log into other services.

Between the lines: The announcement bundles together a range of previously introduced ideas — from https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/03/world-id-wants-you-to-put-a-cryptographically-unique-human-identity-behind-your-ai-agents/" target="_blank">AI agent verification tools to https://world.org/es-es/blog/announcements/new-world-id-passport-credential-launches-access-wld-tokens" target="_blank">non-biometric sign-in options — as World tries to push its technology into more mainstream use.

  • World argues that verifying humans is becoming more urgent as AI companies roll out new agents and work towards AGI — making it harder to distinguish AI from real people.
  • "When anything can be fake, you don't know who and what to trust," Tiago Sada, chief product officer at Tools for Humanity, which develops World, told Axios.

How it works: World ID is designed to function more like a CAPTCHA replacement than a traditional identity system, Sada said.

  • The protocol has three-tiers for how users can validate their identities: taking a selfie, submitting an official government-issued ID, and going in-person to an "orb" to scan your iris.
  • Each company that uses World ID to verify someone's "humanness" decides which level of verification they require.

Zoom in: World is now leaning on partnerships to drive adoption.

  • Zoom plans to integrate World ID to help verify participants on video calls and guard against deepfake impersonation.
  • DocuSign is testing World ID as a way to confirm that a real human — not a bot or compromised account — is behind a digital signature.
  • Okta and Vercel are working with World on tools to verify that a real human approved certain actions taken by AI systems.
  • Tinder is expanding a previous https://world.org/es-es/blog/announcements/experience-real-connections-with-world-id-and-match-group" target="_blank">pilot in Japan to the U.S., allowing users to verify that a real person is behind a profile.
  • VanEck is testing an in-office "orb" for employee verification.
  • World is also launching a "Concert Kit" tool designed to help artists reserve tickets for verified humans and cut down on bot-driven ticket scalping.

By the numbers: About 17.9 million people have signed up for World ID globally, according to the https://world.org/es-es/about" target="_blank">company.

Yes, but: Analysts https://www.forrester.com/blogs/the-web-needs-a-way-of-proving-that-youre-a-real-person-worldcoin-is-not-the-solution/" target="_blank">have called the program "problematic on many levels," due to the security and governance concerns.

What to watch: World will soon expand the https://www.axios.com/2025/05/01/sam-altman-world-biometric-us-rollout" target="_blank">number of "orbs" available in San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles so most people in those cities are within about 5-10 minutes from one, Sada said.

Go deeper: https://www.axios.com/2025/05/06/ai-agents-identity-security-cyber-threats" target="_blank">New cybersecurity risk: AI agents going rogue

Read full article at Axios →

Sam Altman's 'World' Expands Partnerships