Looking into Sam Altman’s Sphere Now Shows You’re Human on Tinder

Sam Altman’s iris-scanning, humanity-verifying World initiative revealed at a San Francisco event on Friday that Tinder users globally can now showcase a digital badge on their profiles to indicate they are real individuals. This feature is available to those who have gazed into one of World’s sleek white Orbs and permitted their eyes to be scanned. This announcement follows a pilot verification project for Tinder that World previously launched in Japan.

The Tinder global rollout represents one of the most significant trials for World, reflecting the company’s belief that average consumers will embrace biometric verification services for internet applications. Established in 2019 by Altman and Alex Blania, the World initiative was envisioned for a future where the internet is saturated with highly capable AI agents, making it increasingly challenging to identify genuine humans. With companies like OpenAI—where Altman serves as CEO—and Anthropic advancing AI agents into the mainstream, the urgency of the problem World addresses grows.

However, World has faced hurdles in achieving widespread acceptance and has met with scrutiny from governments worldwide probing potential violations of data protection laws. According to the company, 18 million individuals have now been verified using an Orb, up from 12 million the previous year.

Aside from the Tinder global launch, Tools for Humanity, the organization behind World, introduced several other consumer and enterprise partnerships during its Lift Off event in San Francisco. The startup asserts that Tinder users who verify their identity with World ID will receive five complimentary “boosts,” which are typically a paid feature that enhances profile visibility to up to 10 times for 30 minutes. Additionally, the videoconferencing platform Zoom announced that users can now require participants to verify their identity with World before joining a call. Furthermore, Docusign, the contract signing software, will allow users to mandate World’s identity verification technology.

Tiago Sada, Tools for Humanity’s chief product officer, informed WIRED that the company views significant platform partnerships as crucial for World to become a standard identity-verification solution. Sada expressed particular interest in collaborating with social media platforms in the future, noting that Reddit has begun testing World as a means to help users differentiate bots from real individuals.

World is also introducing a feature called Concert Kit, designed to allow artists to reserve concert tickets exclusively for verified individuals, addressing the bot-driven scalping issue that critics argue has troubled platforms like TicketMaster. World plans to test this feature during the upcoming Bruno Mars World Tour, which features Anderson .Paak performing an exclusive verified-humans-only show under his alias DJ Pee .Wee in San Francisco on Friday night.

No new hardware announcements or updates were disclosed during Friday’s event. World originally launched the iris-scanning Orb in 2023, alongside a mobile app that includes “mini apps” for various verification and blockchain-related functions. Once an individual scans their iris with one of World’s Orbs, the startup generates a unique cryptographic key for them—their World ID. This offers a private, decentralized method for verifying individuals online, eliminating the need to upload their government ID across the internet.

Initially branded as Worldcoin, the startup began by providing free cryptocurrency to individuals who scanned their irises. While World continues to offer a cryptocurrency token and a digital wallet, it removed “coin” from its name in 2024 and has shifted its focus towards identity verification suited for the AI era. Jess Montejano, a spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, stated that the company still provides crypto as an incentive for new user sign-ups, while also expanding its offerings to include Netflix and Apple TV subscription trials.