Sam Altman’s eye-scanner project launches in SF

Emil Tybura, who is in San Francisco on a business trip from Poland, decided to stop by the store because he was curious.

“This is like Black Mirror, definitely,” he said. “It’s a spooky vibe of tech being so intrusive into your life. But at the same time, I have this small belief that this will be huge one day.”

The effort has faced international suspicion and scrutiny. World Network has been raided in Hong Kong, blocked in Spain, fined in Argentina, and challenged in other locations for how it processes data. World Network says its technology is private and cannot be hacked. 

An hour after the grand opening started, the machines were back in operation. I decided to test the creepy orbs, transcribed with the words “Tools for Humanity,” for myself. I was verified as a real human being within minutes, but next to me, a man struggled to get the device to agree that he was alive.

“I’ve tried three machines,” Eric Soufer said. “Maybe I’m the problem.”