The AI Gold Rush Will Take Humanity to Some Dark Places

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Scanning humanity's eyeballs in exchange for cryptocurrency and assigning the encoded results to a blockchain is the kind of dystopian idea that might have stoked a speculative boom during the pandemic, before eventually crashing to earth and leaving a trail of angry investors behind. But with interest in artificial intelligence reaching fever pitch, this risky solution to proving personhood in the digital world is gaining new impetus.

Worldcoin, backed by luminaries including Marc Andreessen and Sam Bankman-Fried, began as a way to create a valuable token by giving it away to people willing to identify themselves via their biometric data. What the project euphemistically dubs its “field test” phase involved scanning half a million irises using a chrome sphere dubbed “the orb” — prompting myriad accounts of exploitation, invasion of privacy, deception and attempted fraud. The story might have ended there.

But as crypto winter gives way to a scorching AI summer for tech fundraising, the project is aiming for a new lease on life more aligned with the vision of another Sam — Altman, co-founder of Worldcoin parent organization “Tools for Humanity.” Those iris scans, converted into unique identifiers, are the centerpiece of a plan to create a “World ID” that can distinguish between people and bots in a future dominated by AI. With Altman's star riding high in the Silicon Valley firmament, the orb is embarking on a world tour accompanied by an app that offers crypto transactions. The Financial Times reports Worldcoin, valued at $1 billion, is close to clinching $100 million in additional funding.

The full force of tech's savior complex is on display here, and regulators and citizens alike need to keep their collective guard up.