OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has another startup you may not have heard about called World that controversially collects biometric data, and it’s in talks to scoop up a reported two floors of a newly opened office building in Mission Rock.

There is a school of thought that San Francisco’s epic office vacancy woes could rebound thanks to AI companies. We see this playing out in a report from the Chronicle this week, that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s other startup called World (formerly Worldcoin) is reportedly in talks to lease 60,000 square feet in a new Mission Rock office development.

Here is the building in question, known as Building B, and it’s located by Pier 48 and McCovey Cove. The property is actually co-owned by the San Francisco Giants and developer Tishman Speyer, Altman’s company is reportedly in talks to take the top two floors.

The deal has not yet closed, and neither Tishman Speyer nor World has confirmed the negotiations.

Still, this is on top of OpenAI’s leasing spree, which over the last two years has taken over 800,000 square feet in subleases and new leases in buildings previously occupied by Uber and Old Navy.

But what is the company called World, formerly Worldcoin? Their website says they provide “anonymous proof of human” in “the age of AI,” so it sounds like a high-tech version of the old “Are you a robot?” tests. But the “proof of human” (and was that phrase even written by a human?) is a biometric scan of the iris of your eyeball. They’ve apparently given people some cryptocurrency called WorldCoin in exchange for doing this, but still, you are handing biometric data over to a tech company here.

World has faced some criticism for its practices getting off the ground. A 2022 MIT analysis said World had targeted primarily low-income people in developing nations with few legal protections to perform their first million scans — using what TechCrunch describes as "a spherical 'Black Mirror'-esque imaging device that captures users’ irises and high-resolution images of their bodies and face." And TechCrunch also reported in 2023 that hackers had managed to steal the passwords of Worldcoin employees, giving them access to the biometric data.  

We'll see how much more of the SF office vacancy problem Sam Altman and his business ventures can solve. You can’t knock Altman’s track record (so far), though you can knock his recent sucking up to Donald Trump, and maybe that flattery will come in handy if he needs regulatory approval of his new company's schemes.

Related: Elon Musk Fumes as $500 Billion AI Data Center Investment Comes From Sam Altman and Not Him [SFist]

Image: BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 07: Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, speaks during a panel discussion titled "The Age of AI" at the Technical University of Berlin on February 07, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. Altman said he predicts the pace of artificial intelligence's usefulness in the next two years will accelerate markedly compared to the last two years. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images