The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday (local time) that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI who created ChatGPT, is collecting information on the iris of people around the world. WorldCoin, a company he co-founded a year ago, has already collected information on the iris of more than 6.48 million people in at least 160 countries. Governments around the world are belatedly issuing prohibition orders on the collection of biometric data of WorldCoin.
According to the WSJ, WorldCoin is trying to create a digital identification card by scanning everyone’s eyes on the planet and establishing a cryptocurrency market where transactions are made based on it. As artificial intelligence (AI) that will surpass humans in the future will be created and there may be a time when humans cannot be distinguished from robots, the purpose is to create a proof system that can guarantee “humanity” through iris information that only humans can have.
WorldCoin scans its iris through Orb, a silver basketball-sized device, and issues a digital identification card, WorldCoin, and gives it a cryptocurrency called WorldCoin in return. Based on this, transactions can be made by logging in to the World App.
However, there is strong criticism that WorldCoin has collected a lot of user information, especially from developing countries such as Indonesia, Kenya, and Nigeria. Currently, Hong Kong, Portugal, Kenya, and major Western European countries have investigated WorldCoin or suspended operations in the country. Korea is also conducting related investigations.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
