Sam Altman’s Orb Company Publicized a Nonexistent Collaboration with Bruno Mars

Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning venture, Tools for Humanity, revealed last week that it would introduce a new product named Concert Kit—intended to offer verified individuals the ability to buy concert tickets—starting with Bruno Mars’ world tour for his recent studio album, The Romantic.

However, Bruno Mars Management and Live Nation, the producer of the Romantic Tour, stated in a joint announcement to WIRED on Tuesday that the collaboration “does not exist,” asserting that Tools for Humanity never approached them for a partnership.

The misunderstanding arose from an event hosted by Tools for Humanity on April 17 in San Francisco, during which chief product officer Tiago Sada claimed the company would be participating in the Romantic Tour to provide not only ticket access but also “VIP experiences for verified humans.”

This assertion was echoed in a blog post from the company, which stated: “Concert Kit launches today and will be available during the Bruno Mars World Tour featuring DJ Pee .Wee (also known as Anderson .Paak), where verified humans can enjoy exclusive VIP suite experiences at select venues.”

A video of the event and the company’s blog post have since been updated and re-shared by Tools for Humanity, which now asserts that Concert Kit will debut during the 2027 European tour for Jared Leto’s band, Thirty Seconds to Mars.

“To clarify, we were never approached by TFH, nor were any discussions held regarding a partnership or tour access,” stated Bruno Mars’ Management and Live Nation in a joint message to WIRED. “We only learned that our tour was being promoted as part of their project after their keynote made these claims.” (WIRED referenced the Bruno Mars collaboration in its original report about the event; this story has since been updated to incorporate this new information.)

A spokesperson for Tools for Humanity confirmed to WIRED on Wednesday that the startup “does not have any agreement with Bruno Mars to test or showcase Concert Kit, and there is no connection or affiliation with the artist or his tour.” Tools for Humanity declined to clarify why they initially announced Mars as a partner for the project.

Founded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and German entrepreneur Alex Blania, Tools for Humanity aims to leverage blockchain technology to verify individuals in online spaces where scams are common. In 2023, the company introduced a physical iris-scanning orb designed to operate alongside a mobile app.

While Live Nation and Bruno Mars Management assert they “hold no opinions for or against their products,” it appears that Live Nation might have lingering concerns about Tools for Humanity for other reasons. The startup is suggesting that Concert Kit could address the bot issue that affects platforms like Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation.

In September, Bloomberg reported that the US Federal Trade Commission was probing Ticketmaster over whether it effectively kept bots off its platform. Anderson .Paak made an appearance at the Tools for Humanity event to support this initiative, telling the audience, “I fucking hate bots … they make everything really crappy. Especially for the fans.” (For context, Anderson .Paak is set to tour with Bruno Mars under his alias DJ Pee .Wee. The intrigue deepens.)

Tools for Humanity also took a shot at Ticketmaster in its press release for last week’s event, noting that “diehard Swifties will never forget the Eras Tour presale, where Ticketmaster faced 3.5 billion system requests in one day, preventing millions of fans from accessing tickets.”

The partnership with Mars was one of several announced at Tools for Humanity’s Lift Off event, aimed at validating the startup’s identity-verifying technology through collaborations with major brands. Executives from Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign expressed their intentions to enhance their partnerships with Tools for Humanity during the event. Historically, Tools for Humanity has encountered challenges in gaining government support worldwide for its technology as a reliable and privacy-enhancing means of identifying genuine individuals.