Altman's eye-scanning plan

+ Penguin rejects AI training

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Tomato ketchup was once sold as medicine. Back in the 1830s, ketchup wasn’t just for fries—it was marketed as a cure-all for everything from diarrhoea to indigestion. So, next time you reach for the ketchup bottle, just remember: it used to be pharmacy-level serious.

What’s in store:

  • Eyeball scanning is the future of digital identity.

  • Penguin Random House draws a line in the sand with AI.

  • Around the web: Microsoft suffered a two-week security log outage in its cloud services, affecting threat detection.

  • Learn about becoming an AI Consultant!

Read Time: 5 minutes

AI TECH

Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), has been rebranded to World.

Along with the new name, World introduced an updated Orb device designed to verify human identity in the AI era.

The Orb scans people’s eyes to give them a World ID, which lets them prove they’re human online.

It’s also linked to WLD, World’s cryptocurrency token, though WLD isn’t available in the US.

The new Orb has 30% fewer parts, making it cheaper and easier to build.

Powered by Nvidia’s Jetson platform, the simplified Orb is part of World’s plan to make the device more widely available.

The goal is to produce thousands more Orbs, and people can even buy or rent their own to verify others in their local area.

World has also introduced Orb on Demand, a service where people can order an Orb to be delivered, similar to ordering pizza.

The Orb is being rolled out in more countries, including Costa Rica, Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, and the UAE.

Here’s what you should know:

  • A digital ID that proves users are human online, linked to WLD cryptocurrency (not available in the US).

  • The updated Orb is easier to build with 30% fewer parts, and production will be expanded significantly.

  • Despite 7 million verified users, World has faced privacy concerns in countries like Kenya and Hong Kong.

Orb pizza, anyone?

While the World platform has verified 7 million users, privacy concerns about its use of biometric data have led to scrutiny.

Kenya briefly suspended the project, and Hong Kong stopped its operations due to data collection worries.

Although Kenya has dropped its investigation, other countries like Spain and Portugal have also taken action.

Remember how criminals chop fingers off to bypass finger scanners? Now think about that.

Would you scan your eyeballs to prove you’re human?

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Vote for live results and see results + opinions from yesterday at the bottom of the email.

EARLY ACCESS

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On This Day

October 20th 1973 - The Sydney Opera House is formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction.

AI Image Or Real? The Results

The things I would do to have a bedroom like this.

47% said AI…

53% said it was real…

It was AI.

Next week I’m scouring the internet to make this as hard as possible.

Free Resources

Struggling with SEO for your page and business? Well, we’re here to tell you don’t need to struggle anymore. We found the best tools for SEO to help you with getting your page onto the first results of search engines.

AI POLICY

Penguin Random House is taking steps to stop its books from being used to train AI.

They’ve added a new clause to the copyright page, saying no part of the book can be copied for AI training.

This will now appear in both new and reprinted books.

The clause also states that their books are excluded from the EU’s text and data mining rules.

Penguin Random House is one of the first major publishers to make this clear on their copyright pages.

While this update is a strong statement, it doesn’t change existing copyright laws.

It works more like a request, similar to a website’s robot.txt file, which asks AI not to collect content.

However, the law around copyright remains, and protections like fair use still apply.

In brief:

  • Penguin Random House is blocking AI from using its books.

  • The publisher excludes its work from the EU’s data mining rules.

  • Some academic publishers are allowing AI training in their content.

Can’t touch this

In August, Penguin Random House reinforced its commitment to protecting the rights of its authors.

On the other hand, academic publishers like Wiley and Oxford University Press have already made deals with AI companies.

This version keeps things simple while maintaining the original meaning.

AI won’t be swiping these stories anytime soon.

Mindstream Picks

Space: Refurbishment of ground systems, including a mobile launch platform, may affect the Artemis 2 mission's schedule, which NASA still plans for next September.

Crypto: Storj, a blockchain network for storage and decentralised GPUs, extended its rally with STORJ surging to $0.6660, its highest since April.

Games: Unity 6 is out with improved multiplayer workflows, mobile support, enhanced graphics, and AI integration through the updated Sentis library.

Music: Instagram and Spotify have launched a feature that lets users easily add songs from Instagram to their Spotify library.

Don’t Miss: Microsoft reported a two-week outage of security logs in its cloud products due to a bug, affecting Entra, Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, and Purview. This caused gaps in logging, making it difficult for customers to detect threats during that time. The issue has been resolved.

AI Art

Our Image of the Day

Artwork submitted by Mindstream reader Marco: “Shogun era Japan ”

Daily Image Prompt

Ghosts floating above a cemetery

Yesterday’s Poll

“Can AI end banking fraud?”

Yes, it can outsmart humans. 46%

No, new scams will outwit it. 54%

Your Views:

“Fraudsters are generally stupid individuals preying on the feebles. I think AI can beat them easy. ” - guy.mar

“There are people in this world that have the ability to reverse engineer just about anything in existance.” - exploreli

Submit your opinions in our daily poll to be featured!

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