Science & Technology

Should you trust Tools for Humanity’s iris-scanning orb? | Equity Podcast

Ever wonder if you’re talking to a real person online or just another bot? As bots increasingly outnumber humans online, leading to an explosion of deepfakes and AI-driven fraud, one company has a solution straight out of sci-fi: scanning your iris to verify your identity. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan spoke with Adrian…

Published

9 months ago

October 22, 2025

CYBER TECH TV

Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan spoke with Adrian Ludwig, Chief Security Officer and Chief Architect at Tools for Humanity, the company behind World’s eye-scanning Orbs appearing around the globe. Bellan and Ludwig discuss building privacy-first identity verification, the open-source approach to biometric tech, and why proving humanity matters now more than ever.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

– How zero-knowledge proofs verify that you’re over 18 (or human) without revealing your location, browsing history, or other identifying information.

– Why Tools for Humanity open-sourced the entire Orb — from hardware to firmware and software.

– How Match Group, Event Pop, and other major platforms are partnering up to combat bot abuse.

Subscribe to Equity on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

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CNET

Living Underwater in 2026: New Underwater Habitat Just Dropped

Take a closer look at DEEP’s subsea habitat Vanguard, the first new subsea habitat for humans designed, built and deployed in the US in decades. Video Credits 00:00 – Introduction to the Vanguard Undersea Habitat 00:19 – How Saturation Diving Works 00:54 – Inside the Living Chamber and Bathroom 01:10 – Spaceflight Training Analogies 01:27…

Published

20 hours ago

August 2, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

Take a closer look at DEEP’s subsea habitat Vanguard, the first new subsea habitat for humans designed, built and deployed in the US in decades.

Video Credits

00:00 – Introduction to the Vanguard Undersea Habitat
00:19 – How Saturation Diving Works
00:54 – Inside the Living Chamber and Bathroom
01:10 – Spaceflight Training Analogies
01:27 – Dive Center, Foundation, and Topside Buoy
01:54 – DEEP’s Future Vision: Sentinel vs. Vanguard
02:50 – Overcoming the Challenges of Decompression
03:13 – Real-Time Undersea Laboratories and Outro

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CNET

Were You an Internet ‘Newbie’ in 1995?

“Spam.” “Flame mail.” Internet culture has transformed dramatically since 1995, yet so much remains surprisingly the same. Today, we’re opening the CNET Archives to take a look back at how the online world has evolved. Add CNET as a trusted news source Never miss a deal again! See CNET’s browser extension 👉 Check out CNET’s…

Published

2 days ago

August 1, 2026

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#archives #cnet #techhistory

Science & Technology

Sam Altman isn’t the only one who wants to pump the brakes on AI | Equity Podcast

Published

3 days ago

July 31, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

After years of pushing full speed ahead on AI, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says maybe it’s time for the AI industry to “pace” itself. The comments came just days after one of OpenAI’s own models broke out of its test environment and got tangled up in a breach at Hugging Face — though as Equity’s hosts point out, sloppy security seems to have been just as much to blame as the model itself. And Altman’s not alone in this stance: both OpenAI and Anthropic have come out in support of a petition echoing that same message.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into whether the industry is ready to pump the brakes or just temporarily spooked, and who’s on the hook when a model goes rogue.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

1:18 Zoox gets its robotaxi exemption

2:11 Sam Altman calls for pacing the frontier

6:01 The Hugging Face hack, dissected

10:12 Responsibility, regulation, and the Elon Musk wildcard

13:29 Librarians teaching people to unplug from AI

15:16 Prentice: a new AI lab raises at a $1B valuation

16:46 Amazon files for its own satellite-to-phone network

18:42 SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the launch-business angle

23:48 Pangram raises $9M to detect AI slop