--- title: "Sam Altman’s Eyeball Scanning Company Now Laying Off Workers" description: "Tools for Humanity has announced it's laying off a portion of its workforce after struggling to scale its product and navigate regulations." date: "2026-06-09" modified: "2026-06-09" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/sam-altman-orb-scanning-company-layoffs" categories: - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" --- # Sam Altman’s Eyeball Scanning Company Now Laying Off Workers ![Photograph featuring one of the eye-scanning orbs from Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity.]() *Christina House / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Futurism* Look, nobody roots for workers to lose their jobs. But some companies are built on such a ridiculous premise that it's impossible to ignore the cracks in the foundation — making layoffs all but inevitable. On Monday this week, the Sam Altman-founded startup Tools for Humanity announced it was laying off an unspecified number of employees, [*Business Insider* reported](). The company, which had employed more than 500 people, is valued at $2.5 billion, with backing from big name tech investors including [Andreessen Horowitz](). It's main product is the Orb, a biometric ID device that scans irises in order to provide "proof of humanity" to clients. Basically, the idea goes, Orb is the only way to combat the growing risk of AI deepfakes and scams — a development which Altman, as chief executive of OpenAI, is [coincidentally]() [spearheading](). "As we enter the next step of our company strategy and operating priorities, we have made the hard decision to make changes to some roles and teams across the company," the company told staffers in an all-hands email viewed by *BI*. The layoffs come as the company has struggled to find a suitable market for its Orbs. As [*Time* noted]() in reporting from earlier this year, Tools for Humanity was caught woefully unprepared to scale its technology when AI agents began swarming the internet back in February. "We acknowledge we have a problem," the company's chief business officer Trevor Traina told *Time*. "We've been Orb-constrained." And though the company's "World" ID project has found heavyweight partners in software firms like Tinder, Zoom, and Docusign, numerous governments in [Asia](), [Africa](), [South America](), and [Europe]() have halted or outright banned the Orbs due to issues with the company's [collection of biometric information](). The scale of these layoffs will be a telling measure of just how deep the issues are at Tools for Humanity — and whether there's appetite in the market for a company premised on selling a solution to its own founder's hubris. **More on layoffs:** *[99 Percent of CEOs Are Preparing to Lay Off Workers and Replace Them With AI Within Two Years, Survey Finds]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()