Altman brings iris scanning to USA

Thursday’s AI Report

• 1. 👁️ Altman brings iris scanning to USA
• 2. 💼 Become an AI consultant with Innovating with AI
• 3. 🌎 Anthropic backs US export limits
• 4. 🛍️ Visa’s AI shopping revolution
• 5. 💹 Invest in fast-growing software company, Mode Mobile
• 6. ⚙️ Trending AI Tools
• 7. 🏗️ Practical AI Applications
• 8. 📑 Recommended Resources

Read Time: 5 minutes

📢 This week’s AI Report podcast drops tomorrow: Liam chats to Kate Farmer about the unknown risks of AI mental health apps. It’s such a topical discussion, don’t miss it.

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Altman brings iris scanning to USA

🚨 Our Report 

Sam Altman’s identity-verification, blockchain startup, World, has launched its iris-scanning “orbs” in the US. These orbs scan people’s irises to create a unique user ID, which they can use to verify their identity, which Altman believes is the only way to combat “AI fakery” and fraud. Alongside this, it’s also formed partnerships with Visa and Tinder (more on this later) and is planning to launch a mobile-like device in 2026—the Orb mini— which will have two large camera “eyes” that will scan users' irises, on the go.

🔓 Key Points

• People can scan their irises in six “innovation hubs” in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco, and World predicts over ½ the US population will have access to one by the end of 2025.

• World has partnered with Visa to create a “World Visa card,” which will be available (later this year) to those who have scanned their irises and can be used wherever Visa is accepted.

• It's also integrated its tech into the dating app, Tinder (currently piloting in Japan), to identify the age of users to try and prevent the rise of dating app scams.

🔐 Relevance 

World has previously faced criticism from foreign governments for how it captures and stores users’ biometric data: It keeps hold of some personal data to make sure people don’t double-scan or try and trick the system, but World remains resolute that all data is decentralized, making it impossible to reverse-engineer.

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🚨 Our Report

Just 2 weeks before the implementation of the US Department of Commerce’s “Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion” (known as the AI Diffusion Rule), which enforces export controls on advanced AI chips, AI start-up Anthropic has announced its “strong support” for the framework, declaring it’s essential for maintaining America’s AI advantage and economic prosperity, but has suggested three refinements to strengthen its effectiveness.

🔔 Framework recap: The AI Diffusion Rule was first introduced in January by the Biden Administration. It divides the world’s countries into three tiers (each with its own export controls), based on national security risk:

• Tier 1 includes America’s closest allies, like Japan and South Korea, and can continue without export restrictions. 

• Tier 2 includes Mexico and Portugal, which will face some restrictions, including a cap on how many chips they can buy.

• Tier 3, which includes China and Russia, is the most heavily restricted and faces strict export controls.

🔓 Key Points

• When the framework was first introduced, several tech industry leaders, including AI chip-maker NVIDIA, believed it would “derail” innovation worldwide, but Anthropic clearly disagrees.

• In one of its recommendations, Anthropic suggested lowering the number of AI chips Tier 2 can buy, instead, encouraging government-to-government agreements that would prevent smuggling and increase US control.

• In another, Anthropic has called for increased funding to make sure the export restrictions are properly enforced, noting that "export controls are only effective with proper enforcement."

🔐 Relevance

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has previously advocated for stronger export controls and has warned the US government that any delay in implementing the framework "would invite stockpiling and weaken the effectiveness of the rule."

• Visa has launched a program, called Intelligent Commerce, which enables AI agents to find and buy products on behalf of customers, to enhance and personalize their shopping experiences.

• To enable this, Visa is partnering with a mix of tech companies—including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, and Stripe—which will connect to Visa’s payments network.

• This follows similar announcements from Mastercard, Amazon, and PayPal, which are launching similar initiatives to build “agentic commerce” and make AI shopping “more personal, secure, and convenient.”

This tech company grew 32,481%...

No, it's not NVIDIA… It's Mode Mobile, 2023’s fastest-growing software company according to Deloitte.

Their disruptive tech, the EarnPhone and EarnOS, has helped users make and save an eye-popping $325M+, driving $60M+ in revenue and a massive 45M+ consumer base. And having secured partnerships with Walmart and Best Buy, Mode’s not stopping there…

Like Uber turned vehicles into revenue-generating assets, Mode is turning smartphones into an easy, passive revenue source. The difference is that you get to invest early in Mode’s pre-IPO offering at just $0.26/share.

They’ve just been granted the stock ticker $MODE by the Nasdaq2, and the time to invest at their current share price is running out.

Read the offering circular at invest.modemobile.com

Prompt Inspiration

After typing this prompt, you will get a strategy that will allow you to routinely update your virtual shopping assistant with new products, offers, and content.

P.S. Use the Prompt Engineer GPT by The AI Report to 10x your prompts.

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Name: Mem AI
Value: $110M
Funding raised: $29.1M

Mem is an AI-based note-taking app. Their key feature, Mem Chat, integrates GPT-4 to make note-taking easier and more efficient. Users can interact with the AI conversationally, making organizing thoughts, capturing ideas, and retrieving information easier.

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