Private Proof of Human: Critical Infrastructure for Humanity in a World with Advanced AI
Key takeaways
- Building Proof of Human is unexpectedly challenging.
- Government IDs aren't effective and create surveillance risks.
- FaceID doesn’t confirm uniqueness.
- Without uniqueness, AI agents can outsource Proof of Human to “human farms” (think call centers) that fabricate human presence for AIs 24/7.
- Face-based uniqueness can be spoofed and isn’t accurate, ultimately excluding billions from getting a Proof of Human.
- As a result, an anti-surveillance and effective solution that actually empowers people requires new technology.
Summary
The accelerating capabilities of AI agents create an existential challenge for the integrity of digital interaction and the stability of our society. AI-generated content and actions are becoming indistinguishable from human interaction, and automated messages become increasingly personalized and scalable. As a result, the ability to reliably distinguish humans from AI becomes critical. A world without private Proof of Human (PoH) risks mass disinformation, election manipulation, scalable fraud and privacy-invasive tracking, all of which seriously threaten the stability of democracy and human agency. At the same time, PoH protects freedom of speech by elevating human voices above bots and it empowers people through agents that are not blocked as bots but recognized to act on a human's behalf. PoH also prevents scalable disinformation and enables public input at unprecedented scale. This blogpost outlines the necessity for a globally inclusive, high-integrity, and privacy-preserving PoH mechanism that also makes it hard to delegate PoH credentials to malicious actors. Contrary to common perception, (well-implemented) PoH does not increase surveillance but protects against it because it preempts the need for privacy-invasive monitoring. It is a fundamental enabler for maintaining and increasing human agency, safeguarding public discourse, and robust benefits distribution (should they be needed) in a world with advanced AI. We detail a technical architecture based on purpose-built hardware and modern cryptography for anonymous verification of PoH. We advocate for scaling this infrastructure rapidly to prevent avoidable threats to democracy and avoid less effective, censorship-enabling, privacy-invasive measures that are incentive-misaligned with individual freedom in the long-term. World ID is an attempt at realizing this future.
