World launches World ID for Zoom to mark verified human participants

The badge appears alongside a participant’s video feed after two checks: an iris scan at one of World’s physical Orb devices, which creates a cryptographically secure biometric reference, and a selfie through the mobile app that is matched against that reference during Zoom calls. Enterprises can choose to have an Orb installed onsite, an option TechRadar described as likely costly but potentially useful for streamlining the process.

The launch addresses a specific enterprise security concern. TechRadar cited Gartner research showing that 36% of senior cybersecurity leaders reported at least one incident involving a deepfake during a video call in the past 12 months. Microsoft has also been updating Teams to address similar concerns, including opening the platform to third-party deepfake detection in an effort to counter AI-generated video and audio.

World says detecting deepfakes can be especially challenging and can lead to an arms race between deepfake detection and creation, which is why the company chose to verify human authenticity instead. The approach shifts the check from identifying every synthetic video to confirming that a participant has completed World’s biometric verification.

The announcement comes as OpenAI, another company led by Altman, becomes increasingly capable of mimicking humans, TechRadar reported. World ID for Zoom is aimed at enterprise customers, and verified participants receive the Human Badge so that other people in the call can see that the participant has passed the checks.