Tools for Humanity, the tech startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, introduced its latest innovation — the Orb Mini verification device — at its “At Last” event in San Francisco this week. This new mobile tool is built to help determine whether someone is human or an AI agent, furthering the mission of its World identity project.

The Orb Mini closely resembles a smartphone but is equipped with dual sensors on the front that scan a user’s eyes. Rich Heley, the company’s Chief Device Officer and a former executive at Apple, officially revealed the device during the product announcement. This compact unit is designed to be portable, making biometric verification more accessible on the go.

A Portable Extension of the World Project’s Original Orb Scanner

Initially known as Worldcoin, the World project was launched by Altman and Alex Blania with the vision of creating a global “proof of humanity” infrastructure. With the digital landscape increasingly flooded by advanced AI, distinguishing between bots and humans is becoming a high-stakes challenge — one that the Orb Mini aims to address through blockchain-linked biometric verification.

Much like its larger predecessor, the original Orb, the Orb Mini captures an iris scan and generates a unique digital identity recorded on the blockchain. This identity confirms the user is human, enabling participation in the World project’s decentralized identity framework.

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