View Transcript
Episode Description
Alex Blania (CEO of Tools for Humanity, Co-Founder of World, and Co-Founder of Merge Labs) joins Sourcery to explain why the internet is heading toward a breaking point: bots, deepfakes, scams, and autonomous agents are scaling faster than trust.
“99.9% of internet traffic will be AI driven.”
“It’s not about combating the bots because that will be a lost cause.”
World is trying to build a “real human network” a proof-of-human layer for the AI era, and the numbers are getting serious:
• 38,374,194 World App users across 160 countries
• 17,832,402 verified unique humans
• 970,885,726 wallet transactions
We talk about: how proof-of-human actually works, what happens when bots outnumber people online, why identity becomes the bottleneck for markets and platforms, and what a “verified human internet” could look like.
Then we go deeper into Alex’s second frontier bet: Merge Labs, a brain–computer interface research lab that raised $252M seed round at an $850M valuation, backed by Bain Capital Ventures, with OpenAI as an investor and research collaborator, plus Gabe Newell. Merge Labs is pursuing less-invasive, higher-bandwidth BCIs, exploring ultrasound-based modalities and molecular approaches to interface with more of the brain without implants.
The bot era is here. The question is: how do you prove you’re human online, and what happens when you can’t?
Alex Blania: https://x.com/alexblania
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea
Sourcery: https://x.com/sourceryvc
𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒
YouTube: https://youtu.be/7PnaQzw_K8E
𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery
• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery
• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery
• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery
Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!
Disclosure
Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Alex Blania
(01:27) World Explained: ID, Chain, App — The Full Stack
(04:47) World Card, Stablecoins & Encrypted World Chat
(08:22) 37M Users, 17M Verified — And It’s Still Not Enough
(11:02) “Fail-Safe Privacy” — Why This Can’t Break
(12:18) Where Proof of Human Actually Wins: Social, Dating, Gaming
(14:04) Stop Fighting Bots — Label AI vs Human
(16:49) How Alex Met Sam Altman
(22:25) Operating with Sam While Building Two Companies
(24:39) Inside Merge Labs — Why It Took 18 Months
(24:58) “Last Innings Before Superintelligence”
(32:38) Launching Merge Labs – $252M Seed Round
(34:01) OpenAI Funding
(37:30) Brain–Computer Interfaces 101 — Why Bandwidth Matters
(42:14) Mind Control? Privacy? The Real BCI Misconceptions