Human Tools, a startup co-founded by Openai’s Sam Altman, is pushing its eye-scanning Orb device to the UK as part of the global expansion of the company’s novel identification service.
Starting this week, people in London will be able to use tools from human proprietary Orb devices to scan their eyes, the company said in a statement on Monday. The service will be launched in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow in the coming months.
Damien Kieran, chief legal and privacy officer for Human Tools, said the spherical sphere will be dedicated to shopping malls and on the streets. Kieran added that later, the company plans to work with major retailers to provide self-service balls that people can use like ATMs.
The company is led by co-founder and CEO Alex Blania, who demonstrates its eyeliner scanning technology as a way for people to prove themselves as humans as artificial intelligence systems become increasingly good at imitating people. AI robots and deep strikes, including robots enabled by Generative AI tools created by Altman Openai, pose a range of security threats, including identity theft, misinformation, and social engineering.
ORB scan creates a digital certificate called “World ID” based on the unique properties of a person’s iris. Those who agree to the scan can also obtain a cryptocurrency token called WorldCoin through the company.
Human tools face regulatory scrutiny on privacy issues of their technology in several markets, including investigationsGermanyAnd Argentina, it is also prohibitedSpainand Hong Kong. The company said it does not store any personal information or biometric data and that the verification information remains on the phone of the world ID holder.
Kieran said human tools have been meeting with data regulators, including the UK Information Commissioner’s office and privacy advocates before the planned expansion.
The company said that so far, around 13 million people in countries including Mexico, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Portugal and Thailand have used human technology tools to verify their identities. In April, the companyAnnounced planExpanded to six U.S. cities.
Kieran said there are 1,500 spheres in circulation, but the company plans to increase production over the next 12 months to increase by 12,000.
This story was originally fortune.com
