Sam Altman’s World Expands Global Human Verification to Tinder, Inks Major New Corporate Partnerships Amid AI Bot Crisis

At a San Francisco launch event Friday, Sam Altman’s iris-scanning human verification initiative World announced that Tinder users across the globe can now add a custom digital badge to their dating profiles, proving to potential matches they are real humans—provided they have already completed an iris scan via one of World’s signature glossy white Orbs.

The global Tinder rollout follows a small pilot test of World-powered verification that the company previously ran in Japan, and marks one of the largest mainstream tests of the project to date. It is also the company’s biggest bet yet that ordinary consumers will be willing to adopt biometric verification to access the everyday apps they use.

Founded in 2019 by Altman and Alex Blania, World was built to address a coming future where the internet is flooded with sophisticated AI agents, making distinguishing real humans from automated fakes incredibly difficult—if not impossible. As firms like OpenAI (where Altman serves as CEO) and Anthropic push AI agents into mainstream use, the core problem World was designed to solve has grown increasingly urgent.

Still, World has yet to achieve widespread mainstream adoption, and has faced repeated pushback from regulators around the world who have launched investigations into potential violations of data protection laws. The company reports that 18 million people have now completed verification via an Orb, up from 12 million last year.

Alongside the global Tinder expansion, Tools for Humanity—the company behind World—announced a slate of new consumer and enterprise partnerships at its San Francisco Lift Off event. Tinder users who verify their identity with a World ID will receive five free "boosts," a normally paid feature that increases a profile’s visibility by up to 10 times for 30 minutes.

Videoconferencing platform Zoom also announced an integration: meeting hosts can now require all participants to verify their identity via World before joining a call. E-signature platform Docusign will add support for users to mandate World’s identity verification technology for signatories.

Tiago Sada, chief product officer at Tools for Humanity, told WIRED that major platform partnerships are core to the company’s goal of making World a mainstream identity-verification standard. Sada added that the company is particularly interested in partnering with social media platforms in the future, and pointed to Reddit’s ongoing test of World as a bot-detection tool as an encouraging early sign.

| Got a Tip? |

|---|

| Do you have information about World or Tools for Humanity you want to share confidentially? We want to hear from you. Contact the reporter securely on Signal at mzeff.88 using a personal non-work phone or computer. |

World also launched a new tool called Concert Kit, which allows artists to reserve concert tickets exclusively for verified humans. The product is directly targeted at bot-driven scalping, a longstanding problem that has plagued platforms like TicketMaster. No new hardware announcements or Orb updates were shared at Friday’s event.

World first launched its iris-scanning Orb in 2023, alongside a mobile app that hosts "mini apps" for a range of verification and blockchain-related services. After a user scans their iris with an Orb, the startup generates a unique cryptographic key for each individual: their World ID. The system creates a private, decentralized way to verify identity online, eliminating the need for users to upload their government-issued ID to dozens of different websites across the internet.

Originally launched under the name Worldcoin, the startup initially offered free cryptocurrency as an incentive for users to complete iris scans. While the project still offers a crypto token and digital currency wallet, it dropped "coin" from its name in 2024 and has shifted its core focus to identity verification for the AI era. Tools for Humanity spokesperson Jess Montejano says crypto is still offered as an incentive for new sign-ups, but the company has expanded perks to include free trial subscriptions to Netflix and Apple TV.

While World aims to solve the online bot problem, it does not seek to block AI agents from the internet entirely. Earlier this year, the startup rolled out tools that link AI agents to a human’s World ID, designed to allow a limited number of bots to operate online on a user’s behalf. Tools for Humanity says it is working with Shopify and Vercel to add support for these "human-backed agents" on their platforms.

Despite its growing list of corporate partnerships, Tools for Humanity has struggled to gain regulatory approval from governments worldwide. Shortly after its 2023 launch, the governments of Kenya, Spain, Portugal and other countries temporarily suspended World’s operations to investigate privacy concerns. While some of these jurisdictions have lifted restrictions and allowed World to resume operations, Brazil and other countries have long-term bans in place that block the startup from expanding its services. World has previously emphasized that many of these restrictions were temporary pauses, not outright permanent bans.

Sada argues that most of the company’s regulatory conflicts stem from public misunderstanding of how its technology works. "The idea that World ID is not just private, but one of the most private identity tools you’ve ever used, that’s not obvious," he said. "We’re just not used to this kind of technology. Many people taped over their iPhone’s Face ID sensor when it first launched, then we got used to it."

A lingering open question is whether World will one day partner with Altman’s other company, OpenAI, as OpenAI develops AI-powered hardware products. Sada says he has no knowledge of OpenAI’s hardware plans, and reiterated that while Altman is a founder of World, OpenAI and Tools for Humanity are two fully separate companies.

Lauren Goode contributed reporting.

Correction 4/22/26 5:30 pm EDT: Tools for Humanity initially announced its Concert Kit product would first launch in partnership with Bruno Mars’ World Tour. Spokespeople for the artist, Live Nation, and Tools for Humanity have since confirmed no such partnership ever existed. The startup has updated its public materials to reflect a new partnership with the band Thirty Seconds to Mars.