Sam Altman’s Role at Worldcoin Remains Unchanged Despite OpenAI Controversy

Sam Altman‘s role at Worldcoin is expected to remain unchanged despite the recent OpenAI controversy.

Altman, who was ousted as CEO of OpenAI last week, is also a co-founder of the crypto company Worldcoin and currently serves as chairperson of its developer, Tools for Humanity. 

Despite the turmoil at OpenAI, sources close to the matter told Fortune that Altman’s role at Worldcoin is “not expected to change.”

Worldcoin, which has gained notable attention since 2021, revolves around verifying a person’s “personhood” by scanning their iris and rewarding them with a proprietary crypto token. 

Altman, along with co-founder Max Novendstern and CEO Alex Blania, founded the company in 2020, with Altman bringing his experience as the former president of startup accelerator Y Combinator.

The ultimate goal is to create a future “universal basic income” program in which individuals worldwide are eligible for regular payments. 

Worldcoin’s universal basic income model aimed to distribute the benefits of technological advancements to as many people as possible, particularly in a future where AI could potentially replace human jobs.

Fate of Altman Has Impact on WLD Token

It is worth noting that the fate of Altman has had an impact on Worldcoin’s token price, which experienced fluctuations in response to news about his status at OpenAI. 

For instance, the announcement of Sam Altman’s departure from OpenAI triggered a sharp decline in the value of WLD last week. 

At the time, WLD dropped to as low as $1.86, marking a 42% decrease from its all-time high of $3.30.

Likewise, when he announced that he was joining Microsoft the price of WLD saw an uptick. 

Nevertheless, Altman’s role at Worldcoin is seen as critical, and investors believe that his association with the project is a positive factor. 

“I’m glad that he’s going to continue and that this is not a conflict,” David Pakman, a managing partner at crypto-focused VC firm CoinFund, told Fortune. 

“At least thus far, I’m glad that he’s been, I would say, largely untarnished by this weekend’s episode..”

As of early November, Worldcoin’s app had garnered 4 million users. Despite the challenges and controversies, Altman’s role at Worldcoin remains intact, and the project continues to progress towards its goals.

Altman Rejoins OpenAI

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI revealed that Altman will return as CEO of the AI company. 

“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” the post read. 

We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo.

We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023

The move comes following immense pressure from employees and investors on the board that ousted him less than a week ago.

On Monday, hundreds of employees, including co-founder and board member Ilya Sutskever, signed a letter saying that, if the board didn’t resign and bring Altman back, the overwhelming majority would move to work with him at Microsoft.