The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, July 25, edition that Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, launched on Monday. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that the project's core offering is its World ID, which the company describes as a "digital passport" to prove that its holder is a real human, not an AI bot. To get a World ID, a customer signs up to do an in-person iris scan using Worldcoin's "orb," a silver ball about the size of a bowling ball. The company behind Worldcoin is Tools for Humanity. The project has two million users, and with Monday's launch, Worldcoin is scaling up "orbing" operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. Those who sign up in certain countries will receive Worldcoin's cryptocurrency token WLD. Blockchains can store the World IDs in a way that preserves privacy and cannot be controlled or shut down by any single entity, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters. The project says World IDs will be necessary in the age of generative AI chatbots like Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, which produce remarkably human-like language. World IDs could be used to tell the difference between real people and AI bots on-line.