OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s iris-scanning company has announced a collaboration with Bruno Mars. The singer’s management says it’s fake news.

Tools for Humanity, a startup co-founded by Altman that develops tools to verify human identity using their eyeballs, has announced a new ticket-booking tool that it claims will be used during Bruno Mars’ world tour that kicked off earlier this month.

Called Concert Kit, the tool was designed to reserve concert tickets for verified human buyers, thereby combating bots that bulk-buy tickets and later resell them at higher prices.

However, the singer’s management and Live Nation, an entertainment and ticket distribution company, as well as the producer of the singer’s “The Romantic Tour,” denied that the collaboration was happening.

The singer’s management told Wired that Tools for Humanity didn’t contact them about the potential partnership.

“To be clear, we were never approached by [Tools for Humanity], nor were we in any discussions regarding a partnership or tour access,” shared Mars’ management together with Live Nation.

The singer’s team said they learned about the collaboration after it was disclosed during the company’s keynote.

The news about the Concert Kit being used to purchase tickets for Bruno Mars’ “The Romantic Tour” was announced during the Tools for Humanity event on April 17th.

This is when the company’s chief product officer, Tiago Sada, shared that the company will provide access to “The Romantic Tour” tickets.

This news was also announced on the company’s blog post, which has now been edited and no longer includes mentions of Bruno Mars tour.

The edited version of the blog post now states that “Thirty Seconds to Mars will reserve a portion of tickets for verified humans on their upcoming 2027 tour, with more details to come.”

The spokesperson for Tools for Humanity also confirmed that the company wasn’t in talks with Bruno Mars’ team regarding using its services.

They also didn’t provide a reason for announcing a partnership that doesn’t exist.

Controversial device

Tools for Humanity was introduced in 2019 by Sam Altman and Alex Blania. In 2023, the company launched the Worldcoin project, which focuses on online human identity verification.

The same year, the company introduced Orb, a device that scans users' irises and creates a “World ID” that can verify whether they’re a human, rather than an AI bot.

Since its launch, the device has also raised concerns, especially in Europe.

Given that it is a relatively innovative technology that collects and stores vast amounts of sensitive data, this could pose a number of risks, including hacking and the exploitation of that information.

According to the company, as of 2026, around 18 million people have been verified through World ID.

By introducing the Orb, the company is trying to solve one of the ongoing problems that many concertgoers face.

Several years ago, Bad Bunny fans were denied access to his concert after discovering that the tickets they bought were counterfeit or duplicates upon arriving at the stadium.

The issue arose after an “unprecedented number” of fake tickets bought from unofficial vendors at higher prices were declined.

The situation also caused problems for those with valid tickets, as they couldn’t be granted access because the ticket-scanning machines glitched.

Last year, the FTC sued secondary ticket broker Key Investment Group for creating thousands of fake Ticketmaster accounts to bypass a six-ticket purchase limit.

The company bought 380,000 tickets that were worth $57 million and sold them to fans at a much higher price.

In the US, it’s illegal to use ticket-scalping bots, software designed to purchase limited or high-demand goods. It’s been estimated that around 60% of ticket sales are bought by scalper bots.

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