The dispute over leadership at OpenAI isn’t just causing a stir in Silicon Valley; it’s making waves all the way to Erlangen. On Friday, the cryptocurrency took a 10 percent dive after news broke that co-founder Sam Altman was stepping down as CEO of the AI developer.
Altman, who co-founded the startup with German entrepreneur Alex Blania, also established a presence for the company in Erlangen. Although Altman serves as a board member without direct involvement in day-to-day operations, his visibility significantly boosted the project’s profile. Consequently, cryptocurrency investors reacted: Worldcoin’s value briefly plummeted by about a quarter over the weekend.
Since then, it seems investors have processed the shock. Overall, the cryptocurrency, which only entered free trading in September 2023, has more or less returned to its initial value, currently trading at $2.33 USD.
Worldcoin is backed by a biometric identification system using iris scans, aiming to address issues surrounding AI language models that can be challenging to distinguish from human-generated content—similar to OpenAI’s language model, GPT. Despite facing resistance from global regulators and privacy advocates, Worldcoin launched in August 2023 after an extensive testing phase.
Sam Altman’s ousting from OpenAI leaves many questions unanswered for now. Despite earlier reports hinting at a possible return, it seems that option is now off the table. We’ve reached out to Worldcoin for a statement regarding the situation with Sam Altman and will update this story accordingly.
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