How ‘proof of human’ works
Billed as the infrastructure for the age of AI, World ID was co-founded by Altman and Alex Blania, and is being developed by technology company Tools for Humanity, whose iris imaging technology seeks to eliminate the need to provide emails, photos, or other personal details to prove identity.
World ID’s mission is to provide “proof of human” (POH), so that people know they are in fact interacting with another human being (or a bot on behalf of a verified human), rather than a deepfake or other unknown entity. The ideal is to reduce abuse, impersonation, fraud, and misinformation, and promote trust in online interactions.
POH ensures that only one account exists per user (‘one-person-one-ID’) via Tools For Humanity’s iris-scanning Orb device, which uses multispectral sensors and infrared light to capture high-res images of a human’s irises. These images are processed in seconds on-device to generate an ‘IrisCode,’ a unique cryptographic hash based on the iris’s unique details and textures.