Reported by Lisa Bonos

Clement Anthonioz, a 38-year-old telecommunications professional, walked into a sleek store in the Union Square shopping district Thursday and stared into a white orb as it scanned his iris to generate his “proof of personhood.”

It was opening day for one of six U.S. storefronts promoting World, a digital identity system built on the idea that dating apps, government agencies and more urgently need a reliable way to distinguish people from machines.

“There’s going to be more and more AI agents online — and sometimes you want to prove that you’re a human,” said Anthonioz as his beagle, Tixi, waited patiently. (There is not yet a proof-of-pet option.)

Anthonioz was willing to put his eyeball on the line for a World ID “proof of human” credential because he believes it will be useful in the future for all kinds of services. “I think at some point to vote we’ll need this,” he said. But some privacy experts question whether the World network will be able to deliver on its promises — or keep user data safe.

The orb that scanned Anthonioz’s iris was made by start-up Tools for Humanity, which makes the technology behind the World network and was co-founded in 2019 by Alex Blania and Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

The company previously scanned irises outside the United States, including in Argentina and Kenya, where regulators in 2023 halted its operations for months to clarify its privacy and security practices.

As World launched in the United States this week, Tools for Humanity said that 12 million people have completed an iris scan. It also opened stores in Miami, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta and Nashville on Thursday.

Enrollment involves the orb taking images of a person’s face and then comparing their eyes to a selfie taken using the World app on their phone. The entire process takes place on-device, Tools for Humanity said, and each World ID is encrypted with an anonymized, cryptographic key.

Once the process is complete, the World app informs a user that their data is being deleted from the orb. A person can use the app with compatible services to prove that they are not a bot or an algorithm.

Read full report: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/02/world-id-iris-biometric-altman/