Everyone knows that social media has a bot problem. Automated accounts have made social media platforms into digital wastelands where it’s hard to distinguish between real people and bots. OpenAI may have a fix for this problem, but it’s one that could make a lot of people very uncomfortable.
According to a Forbes report, the AI research firm is secretly working on a social media platform that would utilise biometric verification to make sure that every single user is a human being. This would mean that your iris scan or facial recognition would be what gets you into online conversations.
Why OpenAI is Exploring Biometrics to Solve the Internet’s Bot Crisis
Just look at any comment thread on any site today, and you’ll see it: AI-powered responses, spam attacks, and fake profiles all intended to game the system.
“Traditional” approaches like CAPTCHA and behavioral analysis just can’t keep up. AI algorithms have gotten so advanced that they can generate believable profile pictures, have intelligent conversations, and synchronize actions across thousands of fake accounts at once.
Some experts think that automated accounts may already outnumber human users on some social media platforms. The effect? Social media platforms are becoming more and more artificial, spam-ridden, and gamed, a far cry from the genuine human interaction these sites were supposed to provide.
The project that has been made public is still in its infancy, with less than ten people working on it. There is no timeline or launch date set, but the underlying idea is revolutionary: build a social network from the ground up where bots simply cannot exist on a large scale.
Rather than playing a game of cat and mouse with ever-smarter bots, OpenAI’s social network would allegedly utilise biometric “proof of personhood” systems.
This could involve iris scanning, as World Network does, or facial recognition software similar to what your smartphone uses for Face ID. The point isn’t to reveal who you are to the world, but to cryptographically verify that you are a distinct, actual human, and that you can only make one account.
Why Would an AI Company Build Social Media?
This decision may seem counterintuitive for a company that is dedicated to the research of artificial intelligence, but there is a logical reason for this.
Social media platforms are where the internet’s most valuable data is created, such as real-time conversations, cultural insights, language development, and trust and credibility indicators. OpenAI can analyse human interaction on its platform without bots, which cannot be done on any other platform today.
There is also a philosophical reason for this decision. Sam Altman and other leaders in the field of artificial intelligence have made it clear that as the capabilities of generative AI increase, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish humans from machines on the internet.
A social media platform that can verify human identity could be a proof-of-concept for a more authentic internet, one that is optimised for authenticity rather than virality.
Speculation Swirls Around Altman’s OpenAI
Speculation heightened due to Altman’s connection with World Network, which was previously linked with the Worldcoin cryptocurrency initiative. World Network has a unique system that involves a hardware token named an Orb, which scans the user’s iris and creates a personalised digital identity. Altman was one of the founders of the Worldcoin initiative and is now the chairman of Tools for Humanity, the parent company of World Network.
There is no concrete evidence of a collaboration, but the technology offered by World Network fits OpenAI’s needs to a tee. The Worldcoin token actually experienced a price surge due to the news, but this could simply be market speculation.
Can We Verify Humans Without Sacrificing Privacy?
This is where things become complicated. Even if the technology is completely foolproof, the question of getting people to submit their biometric information is a completely different story altogether. Some of the valid concerns include: Who holds this information? What happens if the system is hacked? Would governments be able to gain access to it?
World Network stresses the importance of privacy-preserving approaches that do not hold personal information, but public confidence in biometric technologies has been low for several years following data breaches and surveillance scandals.
There are also concerns about accessibility and equity on a global scale. Would people have to use special hardware? Would this prevent people in developing countries from using it?
Even if OpenAI never publicly launches this platform, the discussion that has been sparked is important. Governments, platforms, and researchers around the world are all grappling with the same question: How can you verify that a user is human without ruining privacy?
If OpenAI can find a viable solution, it could have implications that go well beyond social media platforms and impact online voting systems, financial fraud prevention, AI content moderation, and digital citizenship policies.
At this point, OpenAI has made no public statements, and it is unclear if this project will ever see the light of day outside of the research phase. However, in a world where AI is capable of convincingly impersonating human users at scale, the need for a bot-free internet has never felt more pressing.
