Speaker unverified: belief

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…f get on board because it would let them get through the airport faster. I think that's one possible outcome here is that we start just like seeing these orbs in like every gas station and convenience store in America and then we just sort of become desensitized to it and it's like, oh yeah, like I did my orb. Have you not done your orb? I think the other thing that could happen is like this just is a bridge too far for people and they just say, you know what, I don't trust these people and I don't want to give them my eyeballs. Yeah, let me ask one more question about the financial system undergirling world, Kevin, which is I I just learned uh in preparing for this conversation with you that World is apparently a nonprofit. Is that right? So, it's a little complicated. Basically, there is a for-profit company called Tools for Humanity that is sort of putting all this together. They're in charge of the whole sort of scheme. And then there is the world foundation which is a nonprofit that owns the intellectual property uh of the sort of protocol uh on which all this is based. So as with many Sam Alman projects the answer is it's complicated. Uh I think here's where this gets really interesting to me Casey. So Sam Alman co-founder of world also CEO of Open AI. Mhm. Open AI is reportedly thinking about starting a social network. One possibility I can see quite easily actually is that these things eventually merge. That world IDs become sort of the means of logging into the open AI social network, whatever that ends up looking like. And maybe it becomes the way that people will pay for things within the kind of open AI ecosystem. Maybe it becomes the the currency that you get rewarded in for contributing some valuable content or piece of information to the open AI network. I think there are a lot of different possible paths here including by the way like failure. I think that is obviously an option here. But one path is that this sort of becomes uh either officially or unofficially merged and that worldcoin becomes some piece of like the open AAI chat GPT ecosystem. Sure. Or here's another possibility. Sam has to raise so much money to spread world throughout the world that uh he decides that it will actually be necessary to convert the nonprofit into a forprofit. Could you imagine that, Kevin? That would never happen. No, you don't think that could ever happen? No. Let there's no precedent for that. Let me ask one more question about Sam Alman. Um, you know, I I think some observers may feel like that this is essentially Sam uh causing one kind of problem with Open AI and then trying to sell you a solution with world, right? Open AAI creates the problem of well, we can't trust anything in in the media or online anymore. And then World comes along and says, hey, all you got to do is give me your eyeball and I'll, you know, I'll solve that problem for you. So, is that like a fair reading of what's happening here? Potentially. Yeah. I've heard it compared to like the the arsonist also being the firefighter, you know, and um I don't think it's a problem that OpenAI single-handedly is causing. I think we were moving in the direction of like d it compared to like the the arsonist also being the firefighter, you know, and um I don't think it's a problem that OpenAI single-handedly is causing. I think we were moving in the direction of like very compelling AI bots anyway. I think they are basically trying to have their cake and eat it too, right? Open AI is going to make the software that allows people to uh build these very powerful uh AI bots and spread them all over the internet and then uh world and worldcoin will be there on the other side to say hey don't you want to be able to prove that you're a human so I got to say if it works out for them like this is sort of like total domination like they they will have uh conquered the world of AI they will have conquered the world of finance and human verification and basically all uh reputable commerce will have to go through them. I don't think that's probably going to be the outcome here. But there was definitely a moment where I was sitting in the press conference hearing about like the one world money with like the decentralized one world governance scheme that's like started by the guy with the AI company that's making all the chat bots to bring us to AGI. And I just had this sort of like moment of like the future's so weird. It's so weird. Mhm. It's so weird. It was also like one of those moments I feel like living in San Francisco, I don't know if you identify with this, but you just sort of become desensitized to weird things. Like somebody tells you at a party that they're like resurrecting the woolly mammoth and you're like, "Cool." Like that's great. Good for you. Yeah. Um and so it takes a lot to actually give me the sense that like I'm seeing something new and strange. Uh, but I got it at the World Orb event last night. No, I feel I have a friend who once just casually mentioned to me that his roommate was trying to make Dogs immortal and I was like, "Yeah, well, welcome to another Saturday in the big city." Um, so, you know, Kevin, I have to say, as we sort of bring this to a close, I feel torn about this because I think I would benefit from a world where I knew who online was a person and who was not. Um, I think I remain skeptical that eyeball scans are the way to get there. Uh, I think for the moment, while I mostly enjoy being an early adopter, I'm going to be sitting out the the eyeball scanning process. But do you have a case that I should change my mind and uh jump on the bandwagon any earlier? No, I am not here to tell you that you need to get your orb scan. I think that is a personal decision and um people should uh assess their own comfort level and thoughts about privacy and I'm somewhat cavalier about this stuff because I'll try anything for a good story. Um but I think for most people they should really dig into the claims that World and Worldcoin are making and figure out whether that's something they're comfortable with. I would say my overall impression is that I'm convinced that World and Worldcoin have identified a real problem, but not that they have come up with the perfect solution. I do actually think we're going to need something like a proof of humanity system. I'm just not convinced coin have identified a real problem, but not that they have come up with the perfect solution. I do actually think we're going to need something like a proof of humanity system. I'm just not convinced that the orbs and the crypto and the scanning and the the the login, I'm just not convinced that's the best way to do it. Yeah. and and I my personal hope is that uh actual like governments investigate the concept of digital identity. I mean some some countries are exploring this but I would like to see a really robust international alliance that is taking a hard look at this question and is doing it in some sort of democratically governed way. Yeah, it sounds like a great job for Doge. Would you um would you like to scan into the Doge orb, Casey? Yeah, I'll I'll see if I can get them to return my emails. They're they're not really known for uh their responsiveness. I will say this, if if what uh World had said this week, instead of well, you know, we've shrunken the the next version of this thing down to a rectangle, they'd committed that every s every successive orb would be larger than the last, then I would actually scan my eyeball. If I could get my eyeball scanned by an orb the size of a room, okay, now we've got something happening. But we cut back. I just got a text. It's time to talk about our group chats. Well, Casey, the group chats of America are lighting up this week over a story about group chats. They really are. Ben Smith, our old friend, had a great story in Semaphore about the group chats that rule the world. uh maybe just only a tiny bit hyperbolically there. He chronicled a set of group chats that often have the venture capitalist Mark Andre at the center and they're pulling in lots of elites from all corners of American life talking about what's going on in the news, sharing memes and jokes just like any other group chat, but in this case often with the express intent of moving the participants to the right. Yeah. Yeah. And this was such a great story in part because I think it explained how a lot of these uh influential people in the tech industry have become radicalized politically over the last few years, but I also think they really like exposed that the group chat is the new social network at least among some of the world's most powerful people. Um and I see this in my life too. I think a lot of the thoughts that I once would have posted on Twitter or uh Instagram or Facebook I now post in my group chats. So, this story, it was so great and it gave us an idea for a new segment called group chat chat. Yeah, that's right. We thought, you know, all week long, uh, our friends, our colleagues are sharing stories with us. We're hashing them out. We're sharing our gossipy little thoughts. What if we took some of those stories, brought them onto the podcast, and even invited in a friend to tell us what was going on in their group chat? Yes, we are introducing some much needed transparency to the world of the group chat. So for our first guest on group chat chat, we've invited on PJ vote. PJ of course is the host of the great podcast search engine and he gamely volunteered to share a story that is…

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