Sam Altman’s OpenAI is reportedly in talks to partner with another company, WorldCoin.

OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company founded and run by Sam Altman, is said to be in talks to partner with Tools For Humanity's Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency-based universal basic income and identity verification company also founded by Sam Altman.

Bloomberg recently reported that the two companies are in talks with OpenAI providing AI solutions and services to Worldcoin and further collaboration down the road.

Any partnership between OpenAI and Worldcoin will almost certainly attract additional regulatory scrutiny given Altman's status at both organizations.

Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity, told Bloomberg:

“I think it's only because of Sam. Like, like, a lot more attention than you're going to face with a company of that size or a project of that size.

It's not clear exactly what Blainea means by their comments, as WorldCoin is currently one of the most active universal basic income and identity verification services in the world with an average of two million users.

Related: Worldcoin reaches 10M users, 70M transactions and at least 13 goats bought

Controversy and regulatory scrutiny is nothing new for any company. OpenAI recently followed through on its threat to have its partnership with Microsoft investigated by EU authorities, eventually dropping the lawsuit altogether.

And WorldCoin faces bans in Portugal, Kenya and Spain in the first three months of 2024.

WorldCoin has had its best 2024 so far to expand. As Cointelegraph recently reported, the company has launched its own blockchain, a layer-2 solution that prioritizes verified Worldcoin users – people – over bots.

On the cryptocurrency side of things, WorldCoin recently announced that it will increase its WLD token supply by 36 million – currently around $196 million – as part of a sale to select institutions over the next six months.

This comes as the token's popularity – at least in terms of circulation – increases. Semaphore reports that while the company has between 300 and 500 of its “orbs” in the field, they are currently in short supply.

Orbs are hardware that WorldCoin uses to scan a user's iris – a unique part of the human eye, like our fingerprints – to record and verify their digital identity. In regions where the service is available, those who register for the service can scan their eyes to receive 10 WLD tokens – currently selling for $4.81 at the time of this writing – and two more every month.