Sam Altman’s ambitious eyeball-scanning venture, Tools for Humanity, recently made headlines with an announcement that quickly unraveled. The company had unveiled a new product called Concert Kit, designed to empower verified humans to purchase concert tickets, claiming its debut would be on Bruno Mars’ highly anticipated “The Romantic” world tour.
This bold claim, however, was swiftly and definitively refuted. Bruno Mars Management and Live Nation, the producer behind “The Romantic” tour, issued a joint statement confirming that “the partnership does not exist.” They clarified that Tools for Humanity had never even approached them regarding a collaboration.
The Partnership That Wasn’t
The initial confusion originated from a Tools for Humanity event held last Friday in San Francisco. During the keynote, Chief Product Officer Tiago Sada enthusiastically stated that the company would not only provide ticket access but also “VIP experiences for verified humans” on “The Romantic” tour.
This assertion was further amplified in a company blog post, which initially read: “Concert Kit launches today and will roll out during the Bruno Mars World Tour featuring DJ Pee .Wee (aka Anderson .Paak), where verified humans will have exclusive access to VIP suite experiences at select stops.” Both the event video and the blog post have since been edited, now indicating that Concert Kit will instead launch on Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds to Mars’ 2027 European tour.
Bruno Mars’ Management and Maya Sarin, a spokesperson for Live Nation, explicitly stated: “To be clear, we were never approached by TFH, nor were we in any discussions regarding a partnership or tour access.” They added that they only became aware of their tour being used to promote the project after the initial keynote claims.
Jess Montejano, a spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, later confirmed to WIRED that the startup “does not have any agreement with Bruno Mars to test or feature Concert Kit, and there is no association or affiliation with the artist or his tour.” Tools for Humanity has not provided an explanation for the original announcement.
The Fight Against Bots and Ticket Scalpers
Tools for Humanity, co-founded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and German entrepreneur Alex Blania, aims to leverage blockchain technology to authenticate individuals in online environments plagued by scams. In 2023, the company launched a physical, iris-scanning orb that integrates with a mobile app for identity verification.
While Live Nation and Bruno Mars Management assert they have no opinion “for or against their products,” Live Nation might be sensitive to Tools for Humanity’s underlying mission. Concert Kit is positioned as a solution to the persistent bot problem that affects ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation.
In fact, Bloomberg reported in September that the US Federal Trade Commission was investigating Ticketmaster over its efforts to combat bots. Adding to the narrative, Anderson .Paak made a cameo at the Tools for Humanity event, declaring, “I fucking hate bots… they make everything really shitty. Especially for the fans.” (Interestingly, Anderson .Paak, as DJ Pee .Wee, is set to tour with Bruno Mars, making the initial confusion even more tangled.)
A Jab at Ticketmaster and Broader Ambitions
Tools for Humanity didn’t shy away from criticizing Ticketmaster in its press release for last week’s event. They referenced the infamous Eras Tour presale, stating that “diehard Swifties will never forget the Eras Tour presale, where Ticketmaster faced 3.5 billion system requests in a single day, locking out millions of fans.” This highlights the significant challenges the ticketing industry faces with high demand and system overload.
The alleged partnership with Bruno Mars was just one of several announcements made at Tools for Humanity’s “Lift Off” event, which sought to bolster the credibility of its identity-verifying technology through collaborations with major brands. Executives from companies like Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign all confirmed they would be expanding their work with Tools for Humanity at the event. The startup has previously faced hurdles in gaining government acceptance globally for its technology as a secure and privacy-preserving method for identifying real humans.
Source: Wired – AI
