Sam Altman told IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2025 attendees that people need time to adjust to new technology before becoming comfortable with it, arguing that worries over Tools for Humanity's biometric ventures are proof of an inherent "fundamental tension" with progress.
The CEO of OpenAI and the chair and co-founder of Tools for Humanity was responding to concerns about World Network, a crypto project that collects irises to authenticate humans online through an open-sourced orb-shaped scanner. The project, originally known as Worldcoin, has been investigated by several data protection regulators including in Bavaria,Brazil, Kenya, South Korea and Spain while facing fines and demands to delete users' collected data in some instances.
Altman, speaking virtually during a GPS25 closing keynote discussion moderated by Centre for Information Policy Leadership President Bojana Bellamy, CIPP/E, said those reactions were understandable because of the novelty and infancy of the technology. But he and Tools for Humanity CEO and co-founder Alex Blania, who spoke in person, said the technology will be critical as more people need to verify they are a human online.
"As people get more comfortable with what this is about and why we're doing it, we've been very pleased to see how people say, 'Oh, actually, this is a new approach to privacy, and in some cases, it's much better than what we had before,'" Altman said.
Altman claims he and other technology leaders take privacy seriously and wished the industry was better at demonstrating it to maintain people's trust.
"I am not sure where the perception comes from," he said. "I guess in a previous generation of the internet, maybe it was not as universally acknowledged how important this is, but certainly now I see nothing but extreme focus from boards and CEOs on this."
Blania said the biometric aspect of World Network's identity verification service is critical because artificial intelligence and robots are becoming increasingly good at solving problems like CAPTCHA and other ways to ensure a person is a human. It also allows people to access the company's WLD cryptocurrency.
The cryptography element allows for a deeper anonymized data processing, where people's information is stored in a multiparty computation system and not located in a single database. According to Blania, its utilization of knowledge proofs allows for additional verification and, depending on where World Network's identification is accepted, portability between services.
"Whenever someone is verifying their World ID, that means that you are, in fact, fully anonymous to the platform," Blania said. "Even between platforms, you stay anonymous. … The actual fundamental properties of the technology are, I think, something that all of us want and we will want for the future of the internet."
But Blania also said it is critical that such technology be developed responsibly and urged industry leaders to work closely with regulators to develop their products. He suggested there needs to more engineers and technologists working in regulatory bodies to make sure there is enough knowledge within agencies to understand the technology and respond to it.
Blania hopes those aspects will help people uptake the technology quicker.
"This technology, as well as many other technologies, only really matters and only really is powerful if it gets to wide adoption, if a lot of people actually use it," Blania said.
OpenAI has encouraged regulators, including in the EU and U.S., to adopt unrestrictive AI laws, arguing guardrails on the technology would hurt the industry's ability to innovate and allow rival nations to pull ahead in the AI race. But Altman contended some targeted enforcement that responds to people's experiences of using AI may be necessary, pointing to people's proclivity to tell chatbots about their private matters.
"In other contexts, if you talk to a therapist or a doctor or a lawyer, we have a concept of privilege, and we don't have that yet for AI systems, and yet people are using it in a similar way," Altman said. "And that is a place where I think society will have to come up with a new sort of framework, hopefully relatively soon, absolutely."
Caitlin Andrews is a staff writer for the IAPP.
