OpenAI on the Eve of IPO: Job Cuts at Sam Altman’s World Project

On Monday, OpenAI announced that it had secretly filed an application for an IPO (initial public offering). This move is expected to be one of the largest and most significant financial events of the decade. However, the situation is somewhat more complicated around another project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — Tools for Humanity. Techcrunch.com reports .

According to Business Insider, Tools for Humanity has begun reducing its workforce. TechCrunch contacted the company to confirm this information. The company is widely known for the World (formerly Worldcoin) project and the silver "Orb" device that scans human irises.

The main idea of the project is to verify human identity through unique iris scanning and distinguish people from bots in the digital world. Additionally, this biometric data serves to ensure user identification in Worldcoin cryptocurrency trading. This startup, co-founded by Sam Altman, attracted investment from major funds such as Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital with a valuation of $2.5 billion.

Currently, the company is forced to optimize expenses due to difficulties in generating revenue. Although platforms like Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign in the US are collaborating with the project, the World project has faced serious regulatory and ethical issues internationally.

In particular, people in Kenya, India, and Hong Kong were offered Worldcoin worth $50 in exchange for their biometric data. Kenya banned the project due to privacy and financial security concerns, while South Korea fined the company $830,000 for violating local laws. It appears that users are not very willing to share their personal data in exchange for cryptocurrency.