Ad giant Hakuhodo to expand Worldcoin retina scans in Japan

The controversial digital ID and crypto project, Worldcoin, will now be pushed in Japan by the nation’s second-largest advertising company, Hakuhodo. In a press release the ad giant said it wants to “spread World ID” via a partnership with Tools for Humanity, so humans and AI can coexist. 

The eyeball-scanning crypto project, Worldcoin (WLD), has gotten another shot in the arm, this time in the form of advertising clout from Japan’s second-biggest ad company, Hakuhodo.

Hakuhodo announced a partnership with Sam-Altman-co-founded Tools for Humanity last week, a company connected to Worldcoin and the World ID project, ostensibly aiming to safeguard humans from AI fraud and imposters. Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the force behind the generative artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

Hakuhodo’s press release notes (translated by Google): “The ‘World ID’ issued by participating in this project is a digital passport that can prove that you are a human online while protecting your personal privacy.” So far, nearly 7 million individuals have verified their World ID using an Orb (the project’s retina scanning tool), according to Worldcoin.

Hakuhodo announced it has been testing public receptivity via a “demonstration experiment” since December 2023, and decided to partner with Tools for Humanity after the test run’s success.

However, some view the ‘all-seeing eye’ of the Orb as a cheap and malicious bid for invaluable biometric data, as the project travels from conference to conference touting free WLD, while gaining sensitive biometric info on millions of individuals.

Skeptics also note that while Worldcoin and World ID focus on the importance of privacy, the project simultaneously centers around large corporations involved in politics and big data, to have a stake in a human individual’s most intimate physical details.

The Hakuhodo press release concludes: “Through the spread of World ID, Hakuhodo will work to realize a society in which AI and humans can coexist.”