Tinder and Zoom Communications are teaming up to provide an app to counter artificial intelligence (AI) in ascertaining real human user. The app, which comes amid rising fears over AI, would let users prove they are human and not robots through advanced eye-scanning.
Users of the dating app, as well as other major platforms such as video calling service, Zoom, will be able to scan their irises to earn a ‘proof of humanity, badge attached to their profile or name. Through either an online app or an orb-shaped scanning device run by the World network people can submit to a scan of their iris, the coloured portion of the eye, in order to confirm they are human.
World, formerly known as Worldcoin, is part of Tools for Humanity, a start-up cofounded and chaired by Sam Altman who is also the head of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Once a person is confirmed as human by the technology, they receive a unique identification code which is stored on their smartphone and considered their World ID.
A new World ID app, as well as the partnerships with Tinder and Zoom, were revealed during a live event in San Francisco at the weekend. It began with a video projected on several large screens in a small auditorium depicting several famous journalists, including Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Larry King, as well as former President Ronald Regan.
All of the men were shown using historic video footage that had been altered using AI to have them appear to be realistically discussing the need for a way to identify who is human on the internet. Altman took the stage briefly after the deepfake montage to applause from an audience of a few hundred people. He said there will soon be “more stuff made by AI than is made by humans” online. “I’m not afraid for the future as long as we can tell between the two,” Altman added.
Tinder and Zoom have encountered more problems with fake or malicious accounts and users over the last two years as improving AI technology has made it easier to impersonate human speech, voice and likeness. Fake profiles on Tinder, an online dating and geosocial networking application launched in 2012, often referred to as ‘bots,’ are typically used to scam people out of money or their personal information.
A user, Victoria Brooks, wrote last year on a personal blog, said she found Tinder overrun with bots looking to scam people. Brooks estimated 30 percent of Tinder profiles she’d encountered were “AI-enhanced, emotionally manipulative, algorithmicallyoptimised romance scammers.” Such bot accounts use not only fake profile photos, but AI-generated scripts to chat with real users.
Romance scams saw people in the US lose more than $1bn last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Late last year, Tinder began requiring all users to submit a video selfie in order to confirm they were real people.
The integration with World ID will be an additional way people can be verified on the app if they choose to do so. Yoel Roth, who leads trust and safety at Match Group, the owner of Tinder, said “Partnering with World ID is a natural next step” for the platform to help users “know the person on the other end is real.”
