There’s
a
shakeup
happening
in
tech,
and
crypto
is
a
part
of
it.
On
Friday,
OpenAI
co-founder
and
CEO
Sam
Altman
was
unceremoniously
deposed.
The
board
of
directors
for
the
organization,
which
was
founded
as
a
non-profit
and
later
added
a
corporate,
profit-driven
division
led
by
Altman,
used
fighting
words
in
its
initial
announcement
of
the
termination.
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is
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Altman,
apparently,
“was
not
consistently
candid
in
his
communications
with
the
board.”
Little
else
was
said,
leading
to
speculation.
OpenAI,
the
developers
of
several
artificial
intelligence
tools,
including
the
fastest
app
to
gain
a
million
users,
ChatGPT,
is
often
called
“the
most
important
startup”
in
the
world.
Crypto,
like
nearly
every
other
industry,
has
been
testing
the
AI
waters.
This
embryonic
tech
is
being
forecasted
to
change
how
developers
build
and
audit
apps,
how
traders
make
portfolios
and
how
users
interact
with
it
all.
And
one
of
crypto’s
most
important
AI
pushes,
Worldcoin,
has
an
Altman
connection.
Worldcoin,
a
protocol
for
universal,
digital
IDs
being
built
by
Tools
for
Humanity,
a
company
Altman
co-founded,
initially
saw
its
token
collapse
on
the
news.
Today,
it’s
up
double
digits
after
Altman
was
scooped
up
by
Microsoft
to
lead
internal
AI
R&D
—
a
remarkable
vote
of
confidence
at
a
moment
when
the
backstory
for
the
firing
hasn’t
been
entirely,
publicly
filled
in.
See
also:
Jeff
Wilser
–
The
Untold
Story
of
Worldcoin’s
Launch:
Inside
the
Orb
It’s
also
a
signal
that
when
Microsoft
invested
$1
billion
in
OpenAI,
it
was
investing
in
Altman.
In
a
lot
of
ways,
the
Worldcoin
speculators
too
are
betting
on
the
AI
pioneer.
While
OpenAI
and
Worldcoin
are
entirely
distinct
entities,
there
are
close
parallels
between
the
two
outside
of
the
mutual
point
of
connection
in
Altman.
(There
is
no
reason
to
believe
Microsoft
will
have
any
dealings
with
WRD.)
Both
AI
and
the
crypto-based
universal
basic
income
(UBI)
Worldcoin
is
ultimately
building
towards
are
both
largely
unproven
technologies.
And
both
have
similarly
skeptical
—
if
distantly
fascinated
—
audiences,
with
some
who
think
these
technologies
could
independently
tear
society
apart.
They’re
moonshots,
meant
to
catapult
humanity
as
a
whole
forward.
And
to
a
large
degree,
Worldcoin
has
been
unfairly
maligned.
When
announced
in
2019,
the
world
was
shaken
by
the
project’s
dystopian
trappings.
Not
only
is
it
founded
by
a
man
who
many
think
could
become
the
world’s
first
trillionaire
(who
is
building
an
island
bunker),
but
the
World
ID
system
works
by
scanning
people’s
irises
using
a
metal
sphere
called
the
Orb.
It’s
straight
out
of
sci-fi.
Putting
aside
appearances,
the
project
itself
has
a
lot
going
on.
Some
of
the
smartest
people
I
know
in
tech
are
enthralled
by
what’s
actually
being
built.
Worldcoin
developers
are
working
on
zero
knowledge
(ZK)
cryptography
solutions
for
safer
biometric
scanning.
No
one
has
yet
cracked
persistent
personhood
online.
While
the
project’s
leadership,
including
CEO
Alex
Blania,
are
sometimes
spoken
about
in
hushed
tones.
Worldcoin
may
end
up
being
a
tremendously
expensive
blunder,
as
any
startup
could.
But
there’s
a
difference
between
evaluating
a
company
on
its
merits
and
its
aesthetics.
And,
to
steal
a
phrase
from
internet-famous
economist/blogger
Tyler
Cowen,
most
of
the
conversations
around
Worldcoin
are
just
“mood
affiliation”
—
people
saying
what
they
think
others
want
to
hear.
It’s
entirely
possible,
for
instance,
that
everyone
I
know
who
likes
Worldcoin
is
just
into
the
idea
of
a
project
that
is
being
built
as
a
precautionary
measure
in
anticipation
of
when
(or
if)
AIs
develop
the
ability
to
create
their
own
real
or
fake
virtual
identities
and
drown
out
humanity
…
because
they
take
Asimov
too
seriously.
Altman,
who
was
mostly
known
for
his
stint
leading
massively
successful
startup
incubator
Y
Combinator
at
the
time
Worldcoin
was
announced,
saw
his
reputation
explode
after
becoming
the
face
of
OpenAI.
And
his
standing
has
only
seemed
to
increase
after
getting
laid
off.
He’s
controversial,
too.
Some
call
Altman
a
“generational
talent,”
one
of
the
greatest
fundraisers
in
Silicon
Valley.
Others
say
he
has
“failed
up.”
Loopt,
a
mobile
app
and
his
start
in
tech,
didn’t
gain
traction
but
got
him
a
$43.4
million
exit.
As
President,
YC
grew
quickly
under
Altman
but
is
also
said
to
have
lost
its
soul.
In
2014,
he
spent
less
than
a
Scaramucci
as
CEO
of
Reddit.
He’s
also
thought
to
be
in
talks
to
found
a
chip
foundry
to
compete
with
NVIDIA,
with
backing
from
controversial
investors
in
the
Middle
East
and
China.
He’s
the
largest
shareholder
in
Humane
AI,
which
is
building
a
non-phone,
mobile
AI
“pin,”
but
has
been
largely
ambivalent
about
its
launch.
In
other
words,
Altman’s
association
with
Worldcoin
is
a
matter
of
interest
but
there’s
zero
chance
he’s
very
much
involved.
Other
factors,
like
the
privacy
concerns
raised
by
the
government
of
Kenya,
the
onboarding
concerns
from
MIT
Technology
Review
have
raised
and
concerns
over
the
system’s
proprietary
tech,
are
more
salient.
Citizen
journalists
have
tried
prying
into
(aka
a
“decentralized
audit”)
the
Orb,
for
instance,
with
limited
success.
It’s
no
secret
that
tech
is
in
a
transitional
moment.
The
so-called
“techlash”
is
waning,
in
part
because
the
promise
of
AI
now
seems
revolutionary
–
when
this
time
last
year
the
tech
barely
seemed
feasible.
But
extraordinary
claims
require
extraordinary
evidence
and
deserve
scrutiny.
There
are
some
technologists
who
view
Altman
as
a
symbol
of
progress,
who
don’t
even
want
to
wait
the
30-days
for
OpenAI’s
new
interim
CEO’s
internal
review
of
Altman’s
firing
to
join
his
camp.
And
in
this
moment,
Worldcoin
could
be
seen
as
an
imperfect
barometer
of
these
competing
technophilic
and
techno-skeptical
currents
in
society.
All
I
ask,
before
you
decide
to
love
or
hate
the
Orb
—
or
invest
in
it,
for
that
matter
—
is
to
see
what
it
can
do.