Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 309 | Shaping Section | 2

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since September 2017 | Week 309 | August 11-17, 2023

Worldcoin just officially launched. Here’s why it’s already being investigated.

By Tate Ryan-Mosley | MIT Technology Review | August 7, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

It’s possible you’ve heard the name Worldcoin recently. It’s been getting a ton of attention—some good, some … not so good.   It’s a project that claims to use cryptocurrency to distribute money across the world, though its bigger ambition is to create a global identity system called “World ID” that relies on individuals’ unique biometric data to prove that they are humans. It officially launched on July 24 in more than 20 countries, and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and one of the biggest tech celebrities right now, is one of the cofounders of the project.

The company makes big, idealistic promises: that it can deliver a form of universal basic income through technology to make the world a better and more equitable place, while offering a way to verify your humanity in a digital future filled with nonhuman intelligence, which it calls “proof of personhood.” If you’re thinking this sounds like a potential privacy nightmare, you’re not alone. 

MIT report finds that Worldcoin’s operations were far from living up to its lofty goals and that it was collecting sensitive biometric data from many vulnerable people in exchange for cash.  The investigation revealed wide gaps between Worldcoin’s public messaging, which focused on protecting privacy, and what users experienced. It found that the company’s representatives used deceptive marketing practices, collected more personal data than it acknowledged, and failed to obtain meaningful informed consent.

Since this report, Worldcoin CEO Alex Blania has told other outlets that the company has changed many of its data collection and privacy practices, though there are reasons to be skeptical. The company hasn’t specified exactly how it’s done this, beyond saying it has stopped some of the most exploitative and deceptive recruitment tactics.

Importantly, a core objective of the Worldcoin project is to perfect its “proof of personhood” methodology, which requires a lot of data to train AI models. If its proof-of-personhood system becomes widely adopted, this could be quite lucrative for its investors, particularly during an AI gold rush like the one we’re seeing now.   The company announced this week that it will allow other companies and governments to deploy its identity system.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Worldcoin claims to use cryptocurrency to distribute money across the world, though its bigger ambition is to create a global identity system called “World ID” that relies on individuals’ unique biometric data to prove that they are humans. 
2. The company makes big, idealistic promises: that it can deliver a form of universal basic income through technology to make the world a better and more equitable place, while offering a way to verify your humanity in a digital future filled with nonhuman intelligence, which it calls “proof of personhood.”
3. MIT report finds that Worldcoin’s operations were far from living up to its lofty goals and that it was collecting sensitive biometric data from many vulnerable people in exchange for cash.  And the company announced this week that it will allow other companies and governments to deploy its identity system.

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Topics:  Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Privacy