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How Bots, Deepfakes and AI Agents Are Forcing a New Internet Identity Layer | Alex Blania on a16z
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a16z's Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg speak with Alex Blania, cofounder and CEO of Tools for Humanity, World, and cofounder of Merge Labs. World is building the largest real human network, a proof-of-human layer for the AI era. They cover the technical challenge of proving human uniqueness at scale using iris biometrics, the privacy architecture behind World ID, and why platforms from social networks to dating apps to video conferencing will soon require proof of human verification. Timestamps: 0:00—Introduction 4:07—Three Big Ideas People Were Interested In 9:05—The Orb Verification Piece 15:21—Social Media Bots: PSYOPs and Propaganda 29:21—We Had Proof of Personhood for the Longest Time 36:44—Next Year Go-to-Market Is Focused on the US 40:09—Different Levels of Verification Read the full transcript here: https://www.a16z.news/s/podcast Resources: Follow Alex Blania on X: https://twitter.com/alexblania Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz Follow Erik Torenberg on X: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.
Segments Timeline
Introduction
"How do you prove somebody is human? >> It is a surprisingly hard problem. I think that people are going to start getting accused of being bots. >> What we currently see is less than 1% of what it will..."
Three Big Ideas People Were Interested In
"really, really hard because uh back then when we started the company, there were like roughly three big ideas that people were interested in. Um one was this idea of uh web of trust or like related id..."
The Orb Verification Piece
"piece um that's you know we we've went down if you know world you know that we've built this thing called an you know it's it's doing a lot of things to prevent these kinds of attacks. So it's for exa..."
Social Media Bots: PSYOPs and Propaganda
">> You know social media is one kind of vector of you know things that were annoying and are now becoming overwhelming in terms of just bots you know particularly with SCOPS propaganda all these kinds..."
We Had Proof of Personhood for the Longest Time
">> We had actually we we had proof of personhood for the longest time. It's even here in this on this brief. >> Yeah. >> But then uh at some point we're like Well, at some point AIS will have personal..."
Next Year Go-to-Market Is Focused on the US
"to market is focused on on the US. say more about how how you're thinking about that is the incentive for people to do it because they get to use a set of services. Is there some other economic incent..."
Different Levels of Verification
">> did you ever think about uh I don't know, this is probably a terrible idea, but um having kind of different levels like we know you're a unique human or like this guy may be unique human because he..."