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'Dystopian future': OpenAI's Sam Altman announces Worldcoin, Twitter stands divided

The cryptocurrency has hit a trading volume of $25.1 million.
'Dystopian future': OpenAI's Sam Altman announces Worldcoin, Twitter stands divided

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman has launched a new cryptocurrency, Worldcoin.

According to Reuters, the currency's core creates a World ID, which OpenAI states is a "digital passport" to differentiate between a human and an AI bot. A user can sign up for World ID, which will then scan an individual's iris in person with the help of Worldcoin's 'orb'. This object is a silver ball, as big as a bowling ball, which will scan the iris to create the World ID.

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Worldcoin is created by Tools for Humanity, a San Francisco and Berlin-based company. Its beta period led to 2 million sign-ups, and since its launch on Monday, Worldcoin will provide its "orbing" operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. Individuals from certain countries will also receive a token called WLD.

Since Monday, WLD's prices have risen. According to Binance, it peaked at $5.29, with its starting price of $0.15. So far, they have hit a trading volume of $25.1 million.

Co-founder Alex Blania revealed to Reuters that World IDs will perceive one's privacy. The Blockchains will store the IDs in a way that they can't be shut down by any single entity.

Since the world is gearing towards generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, World IDs will become a necessity to tell the difference between humans and AI bots in the digital world. Altman added that Worldcoin could aid our economy, which might reshape by AI.

"People will be supercharged by AI, which will have massive economic implications,” he said.

He gave an instance of universal basic income (UBI), a government-run program where people are entitled to payments. As AI "will do more and more of the work that people now do," Altman feels UBI will help with the inequality of salaries. It can help to reduce fraud with UBI, as only real humans can generate World IDs.

While Altman said UBI would be "very far in the future" for the world, he has no notion of which company or entity can give equal pay. However, with Worldcoin, it can become real.

"We think that we need to start experimenting with things, so we can figure out what to do," he said.

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