Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, is closing in on landing $100 million in funding to create a new crypto asset, according to a new Financial Times report. Altman’s crypto project, Worldcoin, which plans to use a custom biometric imaging device known as “the Orb” to scan peoples’ eyeballs and verify their unique identity, […]
The post ChatGPT Creator’s Eye-Scanning Crypto Project Closes In on $100,000,000 in Funding: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
“Existing and new investors” will contribute to the $100 million, according to someone familiar with the situation.
OpenAI boss Sam Altman is reportedly in “advanced talks” of securing $100 million funding for Worldcoin, a project aimed at creating a collectively owned and globally distributed cryptocurrency.
A Financial Times report published on May 15 cited sources with knowledge of Worldcoin’s funding talks, stating that the $100 million will be sourced from a mix of “existing and new investors.”
When it was first revealed to the world, the startup boasted a Series A funding round led by a16z, with investors that also included Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures as well as former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
In March 2022, a report from The Information claimed that the firm was raising $100 million from investors through a private token sale, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
What a week! From to ( _ ), the Worldcoin protocol and its partners have covered a lot of ground in a few short days.
— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) May 13, 2023
Let's recap! ⬇️
In the most recent report, one person familiar with the matter said the potential new funding was sizeable given the extended crypto winter.
“It’s a bear market, a crypto winter. It’s remarkable for a project in this space to get this amount of investment,” the source said.
Cointelegraph reached out to Worldcoin but did not receive an immediate response.
Related: Aleph Zero launches $50M ecosystem funding program
Co-founded by Alex Blania, Sam Altman and Max Novendstern, work on the Worldcoin project started in early 2020.
According to Worldcoin executives, the aim of the project is to “tackle two problems” raised by the growing complexity of artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, Worldcoin is preparing to launch its blockchain protocol and commence recording transactions within “the next six weeks,” after having been operating in beta.
On May 8, Worldcoin launched its own gas-free crypto wallet for verified humans.
Is WorldCoin by @sama the break we needed for #ENS adoption? pic.twitter.com/uIJmvZditN
— echelon.eth️ (@echelondoteth) May 14, 2023
Worldcoin team member Tiago Sada previously told Cointelegraph that the wallet was launched so “there is an alternative wallet that is focused just on simplicity.”
Magazine: How to control the AIs and incentivize the humans with crypto
Worldcoin, the project supported by Openai CEO Sam Altman, has launched the World App to complement the release of World ID. The application aims to democratize decentralized identities and finance by utilizing World ID to enable users to sign into different websites, crypto applications, and share personal data in a privacy-focused manner. Worldcoin Unveils World […]
Worldcoin, a project co-founded by Sam Altman, who is also a co-founder of artificial intelligence (AI) startup Openai, announced the launch of World ID, a digital proof of personhood ID protocol. The protocol allows for an AI-resistant verification of humanness online, using a device called the orb to scan the iris of each person for […]
The authors of the letter say that advanced artificial intelligence could cause a profound change in the history of life on Earth, for better or worse.
More than 2,600 tech leaders and researchers have signed an open letter urging a temporary pause on further artificial intelligence (AI) development, fearing “profound risks to society and humanity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and a host of AI CEOs, CTOs and researchers were among the signatories of the letter, which was published by the United States think tank Future of Life Institute (FOLI) on March 22.
The institute called on all AI companies to “immediately pause” training AI systems that are more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months, sharing concerns that “human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity,” among other things.
We're calling on AI labs to temporarily pause training powerful models!
— Future of Life Institute (@FLIxrisk) March 29, 2023
Join FLI's call alongside Yoshua Bengio, @stevewoz, @harari_yuval, @elonmusk, @GaryMarcus & over a 1000 others who've signed: https://t.co/3rJBjDXapc
A short on why we're calling for this - (1/8)
“Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening,” the institute wrote.
GPT-4 is the latest iteration of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, which was released on March 14. To date, it has passed some of the most rigorous U.S. high school and law exams within the 90th percentile. It is understood to be 10 times more advanced than the original version of ChatGPT.
There is an “out-of-control race” between AI firms to develop more powerful AI, whi“no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict, or reliably control," FOLI claimed.
BREAKING: A petition is circulating to PAUSE all major AI developments.
— Lorenzo Green 〰️ (@mrgreen) March 29, 2023
e.g. No more ChatGPT upgrades & many others.
Signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Stability AI CEO & 1000s of other tech leaders.
Here's the breakdown: pic.twitter.com/jR4Z3sNdDw
Among the top concerns were whether machines could flood information channels, potentially with “propaganda and untruth” and whether machines will “automate away” all employment opportunities.
FOLI took these concerns one step further, suggesting that the entrepreneurial efforts of these AI companies may lead to an existential threat:
“Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?”
“Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders,” the letter added.
Having a bit of AI existential angst today
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023
The institute also agreed with a recent statement from OpenAI founder Sam Altman that an independent review should be required before training future AI systems.
Altman in his Feb. 24 blog post highlighted the need to prepare for artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI) robots.
Not all AI pundits have rushed to sign the petition, though. Ben Goertzel, the CEO of SingularityNET, explained in a March 29 Twitter response to Gary Marcus, the author of Rebooting.AI, that language learning models (LLMs) won’t become AGIs, which, to date, there have been few developments of.
Instead, he said research and development should be slowed down for things like bioweapons and nukes:
On the whole, human society will be better off with GPT-5 than GPT-4 -- better to have slightly smarter models around. AIs taking human jobs will ultimately a good thing. The hallucinations and banality will decrease and folks will learn to work around them.
— Ben Goertzel (@bengoertzel) March 29, 2023
In addition to language learning models like ChatGPT, AI-powered deep fake technology has been used to create convincing images, audio and video hoaxes. The technology has also been used to create AI-generated artwork, with some concerns raised about whether it could violate copyright laws in certain cases.
Related: ChatGPT can now access the internet with new OpenAI plugins
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz recently told investors he was shocked over the amount of regulatory attention that has been given to crypto, while little has been toward artificial intelligence.
“When I think about AI, it shocks me that we’re talking so much about crypto regulation and nothing about AI regulation. I mean, I think the government’s got it completely upside-down,” he opined during a shareholders call on March 28.
FOLI has argued that should AI development pause not be enacted quickly, governments should get involved with a moratorium.
“This pause should be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium,” it wrote.
Magazine: How to prevent AI from ‘annihilating humanity’ using blockchain
During the last few weeks, a project called Worldcoin has been the subject of numerous headlines and speculation. Worldcoin launched on October 21 and aims to be a universal basic income (UBI) crypto asset that gives free tokens to accounts that are verified with a biometric eye scan. The project has privacy advocates reeling and […]