OpenAI announced on Monday that it confidentially filed an initial public offeringmarking what could become one of the defining public offerings of the decade. And then there’s OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s other company, Tools for humanitywhich is supposedly carrying out layoffs, according to Insider business information. TechCrunch has contacted the company for confirmation.
You may know Tools for Humanity best through its verification project known as World, and its related device, a creepy silver orb that wants to scan your eyeballs. The idea is that the company can verify people’s identities using unique iris scans, helping to distinguish human activity from robot activity in the increasingly automated world that Tools for Humanity co-founder and president Altman is building. The company would also use these scans to validate people’s identities and support trading of its own cryptocurrency, Worldcoin.
These vague and suspicious ambitions were enough to raise money in a Valuation of $2.5 billion from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital and other funds that support blockchain companies. But now the company reportedly staff reduction while struggling to generate income.
In the United States, companies like TinderZoom and Docusign have teamed up on Altman’s side project. Internationally, Tools for Humanity has faced regulatory and ethical concerns. In Kenya, India and Hong Kong, for example, people were offered the equivalent of $50 in world currencies in exchange for your biometric data. Kenya subsequently banned World from operating in the country, citing financial and privacy concerns; Meanwhile, South Korea fined the company $830,000 for allegedly raping local privacy law.
Who would have thought? People don’t like giving their biometric data to a startup in exchange for $50 in cryptocurrency.
