World, the startup co-founded by Sam Altman, has unveiled the beta of a new ID verification tool aimed at combating AI-generated content online.
The company describes its technology as “proof of human” tech, designed to verify real users in an internet landscape increasingly flooded with synthetic content.
The move comes amid scrutiny of Altman’s other company, OpenAI, which has been widely criticized for producing large volumes of AI-generated content, including deepfakes and low-quality media.
Tools for Humanity, the startup behind World, says the new tool is particularly aimed at supporting “agentic commerce,” a rapidly growing trend in which AI programs autonomously browse the web and make purchases on behalf of users.
The use of AI agents to browse websites and make purchases on behalf of consumers is on the rise, offering convenience but also raising concerns over new types of fraud, spam, and large-scale online abuse.
On Tuesday, World unveiled its proposed solution: AgentKit, a software development toolkit for commercial websites.
The tool enables sites to implement a verification system designed to confirm that a real human is behind an AI agent’s purchasing decisions, aiming to bring trust and accountability to automated online transactions.
“AgentKit is built as a complementary extension to the x402 v2 protocol, in coordination with Coinbase,” Tools for Humanity said in a statement. “The integration is designed so that any website already using x402 can enable proof of unique human verification alongside (or instead of) micropayments.”
AgentKit is built on World ID, the core of Tools for Humanity’s verification system. The most secure version of the ID is generated through a scan of a user’s eyes using World’s Orb device.
The Orb converts the iris into a unique, encrypted digital code — the verified World ID — which users can then use to access TFH’s ecosystem of services through the World app.
AgentKit also enables integration of a user’s World ID with the newly launched x402 protocol, a blockchain-based payment standard developed by Coinbase and Cloudflare. The protocol allows automated programs to transact directly with each other online, without requiring human intervention at every step.
