‘The face thing is probably going to break’ — Sam Altman-backed firm warns AI will soon outgrow facial recognition, but says its ‘proof of human’ system World ID could be part of the solution A new ‘proof of human’ system aims to tackle deepfakes Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Facial recognition has become one of the default ways we prove who we are online, from unlocking our phones to logging into banking apps. But according to a senior figure at a Sam Altman-backed startup, that entire system may not hold for much longer, thanks to AI. “Over time the AI is going to get so powerful that really, the face thing is probably going to break,” says Tiago Sanda, Chief Product Officer for Tools for Humanity, as I catch up with him to discuss the latest upgrade to its World ID system. The company behind the controversial Orb device, is rolling out new ways to use its "proof of human" system in a world where AI-generated faces, voices, and identities are getting harder to spot by the day. Article continues belowHow the Orb works If you cast your mind back to about a year ago you’ll remember the Orb — essentially it was a fancy camera inside a round case — that could verify that you were human and give you a World ID to prove it. The Orb has a bunch of sensors inside. Some of them are similar to what’s inside your iPhone, like near- and far-spectrum infrared, but it also has cameras and a very powerful Nvidia chip inside it. So, it's able