Sam Altman’s iris-scanning company joins forces with Tinder and Zoom to exterminate deepfake scams

Sam Altman’s second child is partnering with Tinder and Zoom to help users identify real human people in the era of AI.

OpenAI’s CEO has another technology company that builds “decentralized identity and financial tools for the AI era.”

Altman’s lesser-known company, Tools for Humanity, is partnering with dating giant Match Group and the video communication company Zoom to bring its new era of biometric verification to Tinder and Zoom.

One of the UK’s “Big Four” accounting firms, Deloitte, predicts that generative AI will help bad actors defraud victims cheaply and effectively, with losses reaching $40 billion in the US by 2027.

Tools for Humanity has developed its own answer to AI-enabled fraud with the “Orb” biometric verification device.

The Orb is an open-source iris-imaging technology that verifies whether an individual is actually human.

The process is supposedly simple. All users need to verify their identity with the Orb once, and then they’re given a badge on their profiles that shows they’re human.

While these companies claim that the verification process is easy, it still requires downloading the WorldID app, creating an account, generating a passkey, agreeing to terms, and locating an Orb in your area.

The upside is that users won’t have to verify their identities every time they want to use Tinder or Zoom, as their iris image is encoded and encrypted directly on the Orb, according to Tools for Humanity.

All data, which is only images of the eyes and face, is encrypted and sent to the user’s device. No data is saved locally on the Orb.

Verified humans will receive a proof-of-human badge, which is then displayed on their Tinder and Zoom profiles.

No data is shared with Zoom or other users, so that companies and customers are guaranteed security and safety when using the platform, according to Zoom.

Is Tools for Humanity’s Orb safe?

The organization responsible for human verification, WorldID, claims that Altman’s Orb is safe.

Tools for Humanity uses a minimal-data approach to verification, taking only photos of the user's face and eyes, which are sent directly to their device. Nothing is stored locally on the Orb.

The device also features “highly-advanced security features designed to ensure that the temporary computing is conducted securely,” meaning that no one else other than authorized persons can access it.

The Orb is powered by a computing unit that runs multiple neural networks at the same time.

This allows the device to locally verify a person’s humanness and generate proof, which is then posted to users’ profiles.

Security experts from both Trail of Bits and Theori have conducted cybersecurity audits of Tools for Humanity’s software.

Why do we need to verify users’ identities?

As AI has become commonplace, people are leveraging its power for both good and evil.

While companies like Mozilla use AI for cyber defense, bad actors are exploiting AI tools to swindle individuals and enterprises out of millions.

Synthetic content is becoming increasingly difficult to spot, and scammers know this. Not long ago, people would assume the identities of real people to trick victims.

Now, scammers can create a persona that doesn’t exist using publicly available deepfake technology.

That’s why companies are trying to fight AI-enabled fraud by labeling human content rather than identifying synthetic content.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.