OpenAI intends to integrate a new social network with Sam Altman’s World project to combat bots, reports Forbes, citing sources.
Following the announcement, the price of the WLD token soared by over 40%, though it later adjusted.
In April 2025, it was revealed that the company plans to launch a competitor to X. The project remains in its early stages.
A small team of fewer than 10 people is developing the application. It is expected to integrate biometric verification via Apple Face ID or Orb devices.
The World project is known for its iris-scanning technology using a special device called Orb. Users receive a unique ID and WLD tokens as a reward for undergoing the procedure.
The development of the project is managed by Tools For Humanity, co-founded by OpenAI’s head, Sam Altman.
Biometric verification will ensure that all accounts on the new social network are operated by real people. Competitors like Facebook and LinkedIn rely on phone or email linkage, overlooking biometrics as a more reliable identity verification method.
Meanwhile, privacy advocates are concerned about the potential risks of this approach, as personal information could fall into the hands of malicious actors.
The Bot Problem
Social networks have long struggled with algorithms that mimic human behavior to manipulate markets or public opinion. The issue became particularly acute on Twitter, which Elon Musk acquired and renamed X.
The entrepreneur declared war on bots—in 2025, the platform removed about 1.7 million accounts as part of a cleanup. Yet the problem persists.
Altman has been using X since 2008. He has openly expressed dissatisfaction with bots on the platform and referred to the “dead internet theory,” which suggests that since 2016, the web has been flooded with non-human activity.
“I never took it seriously, but now it seems that many accounts are indeed run by LLM,” he wrote.
AI Applications
Details about supplementing the social network with existing OpenAI products are not yet available. Forbes reported that users will likely be able to use artificial intelligence to create content such as videos or images.
Instagram, with 3 billion active users per month, already offers AI-generated image capabilities.
The launch date for OpenAI’s social network is unknown. The company has experience creating viral products: ChatGPT reached 100 million users in two months, and the Sora app was downloaded over 1 million times in just five days.
However, OpenAI faces a tough battle against Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and TikTok.
Back in October 2025, researchers “fed” four popular AI models a sample of viral posts from X over one month and noted their degradation.