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Tech company Worldcoin has a goal to scan the irises of everyone on Earth

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The tech venture Worldcoin says its goal is to scan the irises of everyone on Earth. Now, to do that, they have to convince people to stare into a shiny football-sized device called the Orb. NPR's tech correspondent Dara Kerr went to Worldcoin's first major event.

DARA KERR, BYLINE: The scene inside this nondescript building in San Francisco is straight out of the TV show "Silicon Valley." A DJ spins techno music. Servers pass around detox juice made of golden beets. The Wi-Fi network is called NewWorld. Most everyone here is spreading the gospel of the Orb. I speak to David Khosroshvili.

You're basically, like, an evangelist. You're trying to get other people to try and get their irises scanned also.

DAVID KHOSROSHVILI: Yeah, because a lot of people are sometimes, oh, you know, like, I don't want to scan my eyes. And once you actually have your hands on the hardware and the tech and once you look into it, I think your confidence level increases. The fear goes away.

KERR: The Orb is a creation of Worldcoin. It sees a future where people use their iris scans to prove they are human or, as they say, authenticate personhood. Worldcoin was co-founded by ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman. Here he is speaking to the crowd at the event.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SAM ALTMAN: We want to see what happens when we do this at mass scale.

KERR: Mass scale is something Worldcoin has pushed for years. It says 7 million people are now on its network from Asia to Africa. In exchange for their iris scans, many of those people got vouchers for cryptocurrency, somewhere between 20 and $50, and that's raised privacy and security concerns for some governments. Countries like Kenya and South Korea have even suspended Worldcoin. But that hasn't dimmed the venture's enthusiasm.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RICH HELEY: Provide access to every human. We need more Orbs - lots more Orbs, probably on the order of 1,000 times more Orbs than we have today.

KERR: That's Rich Heley speaking at the event. He's an executive at Worldcoin's parent company. He says that anyone can now buy an Orb and start scanning their friends and family.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HELEY: I want all of you guys here today to be our first community operators. Everyone here will get an Orb.

KERR: The tech venture's final announcement - it's no longer called Worldcoin. Now it's just World.

Dara Kerr, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Dara Kerr
Dara Kerr is a tech reporter for NPR. She examines the choices tech companies make and the influence they wield over our lives and society.