Amcham to launch digital literacy campaign with Sam Altman-founded crypto firm

Tools for Humanity and Amcham Korea launched the #IAmHuman campaign to enhance digital literacy and personal identity protection in Korea, emphasizing the importance of human verification in the AI era.

Tools for Humanity CEO and co-founder Alex Blania, right, speaks during a signing ceremony with the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (Amcham) in eastern Seoul on Tuesday, with Amcham CEO and Chairman James Kim on his left. [AMCHAM]

Tools for Humanity (TFH), a cryptocurrency developer co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, entered an agreement with the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (Amcham) to form a joint educational campaign in the country.

Under the MOU, TFH and Amcham will jointly launch the #IAmHuman campaign, which aims to enhance digital literacy and raise awareness regarding personal identity protection and digital trust.

Alex Blania, CEO and co-founder of TFH, named Korea “one of the key markets” in the company’s global expansion during a signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding (MOU) held in eastern Seoul on Tuesday.

“Korea is one of the technology capitals of the world and a very progressive country in many ways,” Blania said during a “fireside chat” with James Kim, chairman and CEO of Amcham, calling the nation “one of the key markets in the world to build a strong relationship with.”

“This MOU represents a great partnership focused on promoting the protection of personal identity in the AI-powered economy and fostering a business environment that benefits from new technologies,” said the Amcham chairman in his remarks.

“Our collaboration captured in the #IAmHuman campaign underscores our dedication to fostering an environment that embraces technological advancement and ensures that they are both ethically and inclusively used,” Kim added.

San Francisco-based TFH, co-founded by Blania and Altman, launched the Worldcoin project — which uses iris biometrics scanned by “Orb” devices to create a “World ID,” a digital identity that verifies the holder as a human — last July. The project has achieved 6.6 million World ID sign-ups in more than 160 countries.

Blania characterized the current AI-driven surge in online bots and deepfake content as “a truly global problem” requiring international cooperation.

“One of the very clear and obvious things that we will require on internet scale is a way to verify humanness on our services — otherwise, many of the things that we care about, [such as] social media, which is the way for us to act in our democracy and to form our opinions, will be challenged,” said Blania, addressing the rapid change that the recent drastic advances in AI technology have brought about.

Blania also stated that “blockchain technology, at its core, is likely to become a strong force for good in economic freedom,” citing the increasing need for human verification in online space and the potential of blockchain technology as the rationale behind the launch of the Worldcoin project.

National Assembly lawmakers, Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the People Power Party and Rep. Kang Hoon-sik of the Democratic Party attended the signing ceremony.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]