Sam Altman's cryptocurrency Worldcoin suspended in Kenya due to eye-tracking (opens in new tab)

(bbc.com)

30 pointsjussaying22y ago8 comments

8 comments

I’ve never given much credence to conspiracy theories but a project that connects AI, crypto and biometrics sounds like something that could play a role in the next Bond movie.

pangolinja2y ago

I believe the correct term is biometric theft

vongomben2y ago

Indeed. But still I don't get the real reason.

Phemist2y ago

Gathering a huge database of biometrics characteristics sampled from many regions of the world to counter one of the strongest arguments against the mass roll-out of biometric surveillance technology: racial biases inherent in the models due to only being able to train on a small part of the world population (e.g. only US, Europe or China).

Licensing this database out could be massively valuable.

NoZebra120vClip2y ago

So I don't know who wrote the headline, but it's incorrect. The term "tracking" is not found anywhere in the article, and for good reason. "Eye tracking" is the practice of using a computer or machine to sense where the user is looking by measuring their head tilt and eye position. It has nothing to do with scanning for biometrics. Very misleading and confusing. I could not understand why this thing would be suspended for tracking people's gazes (or how they would be doing this, since it's usually a specialized input device for one computer.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_tracking

ryan69howard2y ago

The idea is for the eye data to act as the private key - right?

matthews22y ago

No. The eye data is used to prevent people from claiming the sign-up bonus twice. It is independent from the key you'd use to sign transactions. Worldcoin claim that the data from the eye scan is hashed, and then thrown away.

gryn2y ago

> data from the eye scan is hashed, and then thrown away.

probably in the same way openAI, is open.

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