I tried to track down the original source of the news that World ID is being adopted by Zoom and Tinder and DocuSign and it looks like it's an event they hosted on April 17th. Here's their blog post about it: https://world.org/blog/announcements/the-new-world-id-and-th...
There were more logos on that title slide: Tinder, DocuSign, Zoom, Okta, Vercel, Shopify, Browsnerbase, AWS, exa, RAZER, Coinbase, VanEck
World id, meta verifier, how many other military funded establishments are pushing to require mass surveillance of everyone doing anything. Meanwhile their bots run rampant all over the Internet without any concern for anyone else's infrastructure, copyright, or ip. The irony...
You'd be silly not to, if you think about it. There's demand for ID verification, and don't you want to be the one with copies of everyone's documents, instead of the other guy?
so we're trusting the guy who created tech to make it easier for bots to exist on the internet to then sell us the solution to fix the problem he made worse?
I've seen this take a lot and I don't really understand it. IMO if there's anybody to blame here, and I don't think there is, you could go back and assign blame to the authors of the Attention is All You Need paper, or Google as its publisher.
Once that was out in the wild it was only a matter of time before someone productized it, but there was no conceivable world in which nobody decided to, and there was no guarantee that it was going to be public in all cases. The basis for LLMs is so simple in hindsight that it's not even impossible that it'd been independently discovered and privately weaponized for many years before 2017.
Ironically, of the only thing he did create (ostensibly), a copycat never went anywhere "social network", its claim to fame was the app (preinstalled by paying carriers) spamming your entire contact book with SMS invitations to join their failing network. Splendid privacy record!
Trying to make money on selling the solution to the problem you caused (while also probably tracking literally everyone with the solution) is much worse than causing the problem and doing nothing about it.
Defense contractors can sell it to the military and related agencies for top dollar. That's probably number 1, number 2 is higher fidelity correlations to other data.
This is an odd topic. On the one hand, we do seem to have a problem where attention is hijacked by engagement farming. On the other, we also know of problems from draconian management.
I would actually like it if we had something that could say, only promote things on my feeds that are "liked" by people within a geographic radius of me. At the least, mute things that are getting pumped from hostile regions.
I just don't know that I see how this can get us there, though? Seems far more likely that it would lead to more abuse.
Is there any technical solution to these centralized ID authorities doing sybil attacks and minting identities out of nothing to manufacture consensus on supposedly "human verified" sites?
I'm not even remotely-interested unless there is legislation that creates civil-liability and criminal penalties for abuse or mishandling of the data.
Also, companies shouldn't be able to refuse service just because the prospective customer's biometric data was leaked/stolen/duplicated in the past. I mean, when you think about it that's some Twilight Zone or Black Mirror territory.
Weirdly, peter thiel is going on tour right now promoting the idea that the antichrist is coming and may be an organization or social movement rather than a person. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I only skimmed the articles about it
I suspect that if we don't want to live in this future, we need some major open source tech leadership around making something like an anonymous version of this
I know, not exactly an easy problem to solve, but big tech or government is going to do it if we can't find better solutions first
There is no way these guys don't know exactly what they are doing. It's the spam thing all over again, but on a 100x worse scale. Cue PG with an essay 'A plan for AI'. Except this time it is probably going to be game over.
I can see a real future for the likes of tailscale here: botfree networks of friends.
I’d guess that the pattern of ball wrinkles are quite unique. It could have applications for secure login - you’d could hold your balls above your phone camera or lay them onto a USB attached mini-scanner for authentication.
As if I needed another reason to despise this continent. Who actually wants to uphold, work for, and build these systems in our society? This is seriously the kind of nation you want to inhabit?
China already has this level of tracking, Russia is straight up clamping down on the entire domestic internet, and Europe is headed their aggressively, too.
Perhaps glorious Paraguay, aka Best Guay, will shine as the last beacon of freedom, but this is plainly a global phenomenon
I think we need less technology. Can we have a de-tech movement? Life-saving tech is fine but enough is enough with software, AI, surveillance, etc. It's too much. It's been too much for the past twenty years or so.
Well yeah this will help with that movement. And if the remaining online presence like Tinder involves biometric checks, that's maybe not a bad thing, but I also have no faith in this particular attempt at it.
I can't believe this idiotic project is running so long after the "blockchain for everything" mania ended. Seems like they can't believe it either since they changed their name from "Worldcoin" to just "World.
I'd love to see some credible reporting on the graveyard of blockchain projects.
So many obviously stupid ideas cropped up on the blockchain in 2021-2022. How many of those are still going concerns?
I guess the problem with blockchain stuff is that often there's no servers to shut down or other clear indication that a project has failed - presumably you can look at on-chain data to see if people have stopped trading various backing tokens, but does trade ever clearly stop or are there always bots exchanging tokens back and forth?
I tried to track down the original source of the news that World ID is being adopted by Zoom and Tinder and DocuSign and it looks like it's an event they hosted on April 17th. Here's their blog post about it: https://world.org/blog/announcements/the-new-world-id-and-th...
There were more logos on that title slide: Tinder, DocuSign, Zoom, Okta, Vercel, Shopify, Browsnerbase, AWS, exa, RAZER, Coinbase, VanEck
Sam Altman doing his hardest to become more hated than Larry Ellison I see.
do not anthropomorphize sam altman
No one who has watched him talk would. (And yes I know the origin of the reference but at least Ellison doesn’t pretend).
do not anthropomorphize the Sam Mower...
World id, meta verifier, how many other military funded establishments are pushing to require mass surveillance of everyone doing anything. Meanwhile their bots run rampant all over the Internet without any concern for anyone else's infrastructure, copyright, or ip. The irony...
You'd be silly not to, if you think about it. There's demand for ID verification, and don't you want to be the one with copies of everyone's documents, instead of the other guy?
so take down the internet. or take down their company. or just stop using the internet
will posting this on forums that are run by these same people actually be able to drive change?
Yes.
Your message needs to find other people. The how is irrelevant, it just shapes and transmits it.
The axiom here is that both AI and the human internet are worth keeping.
Tech like World ID is scary. Agreed.
What is the better alternative? AI isn't going away and a human internet is worth preserving.
so we're trusting the guy who created tech to make it easier for bots to exist on the internet to then sell us the solution to fix the problem he made worse?
I've seen this take a lot and I don't really understand it. IMO if there's anybody to blame here, and I don't think there is, you could go back and assign blame to the authors of the Attention is All You Need paper, or Google as its publisher.
Once that was out in the wild it was only a matter of time before someone productized it, but there was no conceivable world in which nobody decided to, and there was no guarantee that it was going to be public in all cases. The basis for LLMs is so simple in hindsight that it's not even impossible that it'd been independently discovered and privately weaponized for many years before 2017.
he didnt create anything
Ironically, of the only thing he did create (ostensibly), a copycat never went anywhere "social network", its claim to fame was the app (preinstalled by paying carriers) spamming your entire contact book with SMS invitations to join their failing network. Splendid privacy record!
I guess it would be worse if he was doing nothing to address the problem.
Incorrect. Completely and utterly.
Trying to make money on selling the solution to the problem you caused (while also probably tracking literally everyone with the solution) is much worse than causing the problem and doing nothing about it.
I saw someone in another thread put it quite succinctly:
Shit in the pool then sell the nets to clean it up.
You mean to tell me that companies that got rich by hoarding data are excited to hoard more data? Never would have guessed.
Also, why wouldn't anyone want to have data about everyone? Seems like a valuable asset.
Defense contractors can sell it to the military and related agencies for top dollar. That's probably number 1, number 2 is higher fidelity correlations to other data.
Pairs well with also-on-the-front-page https://app.oravys.com/blog/mercor-breach-2026
This is an odd topic. On the one hand, we do seem to have a problem where attention is hijacked by engagement farming. On the other, we also know of problems from draconian management.
I would actually like it if we had something that could say, only promote things on my feeds that are "liked" by people within a geographic radius of me. At the least, mute things that are getting pumped from hostile regions.
I just don't know that I see how this can get us there, though? Seems far more likely that it would lead to more abuse.
Or like, have chronological feed of accounts user follows. Simple. Produces less outrage tho, so it is a no go.
Is there any technical solution to these centralized ID authorities doing sybil attacks and minting identities out of nothing to manufacture consensus on supposedly "human verified" sites?
I'm not even remotely-interested unless there is legislation that creates civil-liability and criminal penalties for abuse or mishandling of the data.
Also, companies shouldn't be able to refuse service just because the prospective customer's biometric data was leaked/stolen/duplicated in the past. I mean, when you think about it that's some Twilight Zone or Black Mirror territory.
Since when has that stopped companies from mishandling of data? :)
Perhaps it is time to return to meatspace for verifiably real interactions.
bring back PGP in-person signing parties
I would be happy if Tinder used this tech. The Internet is unusable nowadays because of bots.
The blind leading the blind. These companies and Sam are both devoid of any sort of ethical code aside from C.R.E.A.M.
protect ya neck is also one of their main ethical concerns
his mark of the beast attempt # ?
Weirdly, peter thiel is going on tour right now promoting the idea that the antichrist is coming and may be an organization or social movement rather than a person. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I only skimmed the articles about it
'And how do you know this is the case?' : 'Receipts, mostly.'.
Oh, hell no!
I suspect that if we don't want to live in this future, we need some major open source tech leadership around making something like an anonymous version of this
I know, not exactly an easy problem to solve, but big tech or government is going to do it if we can't find better solutions first
Google and Apple already developed private age verification.
>On April 16, it published a blueprint for how companies can grow their revenue with its digital ID.
that "blueprint", hilariously enough, starts with the title "How AI is eroding the foundations of the internet".
from a sam altman company. im afraid if i rolled my eyes any harder that they would spin out of their sockets.
To fix the internet, we had to destroy it first.
There is no way these guys don't know exactly what they are doing. It's the spam thing all over again, but on a 100x worse scale. Cue PG with an essay 'A plan for AI'. Except this time it is probably going to be game over.
I can see a real future for the likes of tailscale here: botfree networks of friends.
Nobody wants to live in an open air prison.
Sama can ID my balls.
I’d guess that the pattern of ball wrinkles are quite unique. It could have applications for secure login - you’d could hold your balls above your phone camera or lay them onto a USB attached mini-scanner for authentication.
Of course they do, when the age verification morphs into real personal identification (PI) all people's habits will be known to everyone.
Time to put a stop to this PI tracking trend. But we all know PI will be tracked by all entities in the future in about 10 - 20 years.
As if I needed another reason to despise this continent. Who actually wants to uphold, work for, and build these systems in our society? This is seriously the kind of nation you want to inhabit?
Half of HN. At least.
This is fascism. It erodes our right to privacy and should be shouted down at every opportunity.
The US is trying hard to become world's most despised country.
Oh please.
China already has this level of tracking, Russia is straight up clamping down on the entire domestic internet, and Europe is headed their aggressively, too.
Perhaps glorious Paraguay, aka Best Guay, will shine as the last beacon of freedom, but this is plainly a global phenomenon
The difference is, nobody ever expected anything better from countries like China and Russia.
I think we need less technology. Can we have a de-tech movement? Life-saving tech is fine but enough is enough with software, AI, surveillance, etc. It's too much. It's been too much for the past twenty years or so.
Well yeah this will help with that movement. And if the remaining online presence like Tinder involves biometric checks, that's maybe not a bad thing, but I also have no faith in this particular attempt at it.
It's already becoming a trend amongst the youngsters, though I can't say how widespread it is. I think it's inevitable and long overdue.
The Butlerian Jihad looms
Won't you think of the children! And the economy! My shareholder value! MY DIVIDENDS!!!
I can't believe this idiotic project is running so long after the "blockchain for everything" mania ended. Seems like they can't believe it either since they changed their name from "Worldcoin" to just "World.
I'd love to see some credible reporting on the graveyard of blockchain projects.
So many obviously stupid ideas cropped up on the blockchain in 2021-2022. How many of those are still going concerns?
I guess the problem with blockchain stuff is that often there's no servers to shut down or other clear indication that a project has failed - presumably you can look at on-chain data to see if people have stopped trading various backing tokens, but does trade ever clearly stop or are there always bots exchanging tokens back and forth?
Transactions on a blockchain have a cost, so it's kinda hard to sustain faking usage.
The Blockchain is back, baby!
/s