Nick Pickles

As AI transforms our world, @alexblania and the @tfh_technology team are at the forefront of building an essential layer to our connections - proof of personhood. That’s an ambitious mission and an increasingly urgent one, and is why I’m joining the team as Chief Policy Officer.  The global policy landscape is changing quickly, and I’m looking forward to engaging with policymakers and civil society groups around the world as we work to scale the project and explain how our products can protect privacy, unlock digital identities and provide new opportunities for digital life.

Join us on April 17th for Lift Off, a live World ID launch event in San Francisco. Hosted by Alex and Sam. With special guests.

As millions of agents start to come online, the internet needs to distinguish bot armies from the agents acting on behalf of humans. Introducing AgentKit, the human layer for agentic automation. Built on World ID, the AgentKit beta unlocks human-verified automation, a new primitive for the agent economy.

@digg saying directly what many have sensed to be true - bots are now more sophisticated and at a greater scale that they are fundamentally breaking online platforms.

BREAKING: Inside Sam Altman's "Proof of Human" Company 'Tools for Humanity' CEO & Co-Founder, Alex Blania As agents like OpenClaw explode, OpenAI calls the future “extremely multi-agent” If bots can act human at scale, humanity becomes the ultimate infrastructure. We unpack: • 38M+ users, 17M+ verified humans • Why “combating bots is a lost cause” • Why platforms will need proof-of-human • 99%+ of internet traffic could be AI • The “last innings before superintelligence” • Why platforms like X may not be usable very soon + we dive into Merge Labs, @alexblania & Sam's latest co-founding, a BCI research lab with $252M in seed funding at a $850M valuation This is the most in-depth look at @worldcoin, @merge, & the breakthrough entrepreneur hand picked by @sama to lead Tools for Humanity Highlights: (00:00) Alex Blania (01:27) World Explained: ID, Chain, App — The Full Stack (04:47) World Card, Stablecoins & Encrypted World Chat (08:22) 37M Users, 17M Verified (11:02) “Fail-Safe Privacy” — Why This Can’t Break (12:18) Where Proof of Human Actually Wins: Social, Dating, Gaming (14:04) Stop Fighting Bots (16:49) How Alex Met Sam Altman (22:25) Operating with Sam While Building Two Companies (24:39) Inside Merge Labs — Why It Took 18 Months (24:58) “Last Innings Before Superintelligence” (32:38) Launching Merge Labs — $252M Seed Round (34:01) OpenAI Funding + Support (37:30) Brain–Computer Interfaces 101 — Why Bandwidth Matters (42:14) Mind Control? Privacy? The Real BCI Misconceptions

While the dust settles on the #moltbook moment - the point where the activity of AI agents went mainstream? - there are some policy reflections that warrant discussion in fairly short order. As ever with technology, the first uses probably won’t be what we expect, some will be harmful, but the pace of adoption increases faster than the parallel policy conversations. Three immediate areas for investigation spring to mind. 1) Hostile actors don’t need proprietary military tech to disrupt the information ecosystem, businesses or Government - the cost of entry is now basically zero to access intelligent, autonomous, KYC-smart bots. Lots of them. 2) This technology will be used by citizens as part of their everyday life. How does a healthcare or social welfare system respond, in a way that does not disrupt citizens' ability to access basic services, without exposing the same services to new levels of fraud and exploitation? 3) Section 230 is not going to solve this - but nor does getting rid of 230. We can argue about whether Congress intended that “users” included autonomous, AI-enabled bots but it doesn’t seem too far a leap to say that content created and posted by an AI tool does not benefit from 230 protection. What that means for a service could be fairly significant - if human content has 230 protection and bot content does not, any online service being used by bots is now potentially liable for what they do. So yes, I think we’re going to need a s230 for the AI age. In every case, the ability to distinguish between a bot and a real human is going to be a fundamental necessity for the continued ability of online services and Government to operate in a safe, secure and trustworthy way. The rapidly increasing availability of these tools makes it a security and economic imperative to start figuring these questions out, quickly.

The future of the Internet is here and it has bots. But not like we know them. There is a solution - proof of humanity. Exactly what @worldnetwork is building.

We published the product and technical specs for the next version of the World ID protocol. Contribute your feedback here: github.com/worldcoin/worl…

Now live on @Tinder: World's verified human badge and privacy-preserving age assurance. Bring back the spark to online dating with authentic connections.

“It’s really hard to both identify unique people and to do that in a privacy-preserving way…having a human-centric system turned out to be way more important in the world today than we realized.” - Sam Altman

Today, the new World App gets unwrapped. Join us live at 2:30pm PST. twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

AI bots were already taking your concert tickets and service appointments - now they're making fake customer service complaints and leaving you stuck on hold. axios.com/2025/11/25/ret…

Gap x World, bridging the gap between humans and technology. Live @Gap Chestnut Street, San Francisco.

Full report here - #AI-Solution-and-Vulnerability" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">microsoft.com/en-us/security…

Lots to digest in Microsoft's 2025 Digital Defense Report, but as you'd expect AI is at the heart of it. I think one of the more profound shifts that AI is driving in digital security and cybercrime is that it isn't just a matter the growing financial cost of this activity - as the report says, it's about "global stability, business continuity, and public trust." AI is clearly changing the landscape - in 2025, Microsoft blocked 1.6 million bot-driven or fake account sign-ups every hour and they found AI-driven phishing is now three times more effective than traditional campaigns. The report also found that the use of AI-driven forgeries grew 195% globally, "with techniques now convincing enough to defeat selfie checks and liveness tests, such as simulating natural eye blinks or head turns."

Important work on foreign robocalls being led by Senators @SenTedBuddNC and @SenPeterWelch - knowing whether it's a human or a machine calling you is infrastructure we urgently need for phone networks. budd.senate.gov/2025/10/21/bud…

As AI capabilities grow, spam is evolving from an annoyance to a sophisticated fraud industry. For the AI age, we will need infrastructure that protects people from this kind of activity - exactly why @tfh_technology was founded.

@KateAndrs @spectator @washingtonpost @adamreporter92 @jameshohmann @DominicJPino Congrats!

After six incredible years at @spectator, I'm so excited to say I'm joining @washingtonpost to help communicate the importance of free markets and personal liberties. Can't wait to join @adamreporter92, @jameshohmann and Mark Laswell's team, alongside the brilliant @DominicJPino and @carinemhajjar, who are also joining! Find me in DC from November...