Issue 8: Today on Today + Sam Altman's Latest Side Hustle Almost Broke My Brain 🤯

Did you catch me on the Today Show this morning? Take a behind-the-scenes look below. Plus, what I didn't put in my USA Today story about the Orb... and more.

May 09, 2025

Happy Friday, Party People! Mother’s Day is this Sunday. Don’t you dare show up empty-handed. Do I need to remind you how long epidural needles are?! (Funny trending TikTok video right now.)

That’s me and my baby girl doing a Mother’s Day fashion show in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park around 2002. (Pretty sure that’s the last time she let me dress her in matching Mom & Me outfits too.) Happy Mother’s Day Moms!

Check out some ideas for tech-y treats, and don’t forget — what she really wants is time with you. And maybe a foot massage. Or a full-on spa day. Okay, all the things! Go crazy, you awesome kids. She deserves it.

Speaking of crazy… this Mom’s been a little extra busy the past few weeks.

Like, three-five hours of sleep a night busy; reporting, traveling (New York → San Francisco → Seattle → New York → Whidbey Island [HOME!]), and covering so many red-hot topics that we decided to spare your inbox last Friday and get all caught up today instead. Here’s a look at what’s in this issue:

My Today Show appearance this morning: I love my Today Show fam, and I’m SUPER EXCITED about what’s in store for next month. (It’s still a secret, so I can’t quite tell you yet… but soon…)
👰‍♀️🤵‍♂️Pete and Palma’s Wedding Recap: Because who doesn’t love…love?
Why did Sam Altman unleash the Orb in America? Is it just the latest tech-titan 🚀🍆 smackdown? Here’s what you need to know that I didn’t put in my USA Today story.
🚩 PARENTS: It’s happening to thousands of teens right now — especially boys. A fake flirt. A private message. One photo… and suddenly, they’re being blackmailed by a sextortion ring. We broke down exactly what’s going on, why it works, and how to talk to your kids about it — before it’s too late. Read that full story here.
What I’m working on next… and the stories I’m I’m reading, watching, and passing along. Like this one about Meta’s “romantic” AI chatbots, kinky-talking with your teens. 😳

Talking Tech on Today: WiFi Wonders Under $100

Did you see us? These tech segments take weeks to plan, days to review, write, wrangle the gadgets and shoot the BRoll, then they’re over in a few short minutes. And you know what?! I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT. I cannot explain how freaking awesome the people at Today are, from my fabulous producers to every single person who works behind-the-scenes to those famous faces you wake up with every day. Al is seriously one of my favorite humans, same with Craig, Dylan, Jill, Laura, all of them. What you see on camera is ten-fold-awesome off screen. They are sweet, smart, fun, and so funny. I adore this show and all the people who make it what it is. They all feel like home.

And now… Pete and Palma’s Brooklyn Wedding

Five stars. No notes. I mentioned that we were off to my work-wife bestie’s wedding in the last newsletter. It was two Sundays ago in Brooklyn, and it was seriously the best. time. ever. I love celebrating love, and can’t wait for the next round of adventure with these crazy kids. Here’s a snapshot of a snapshot below. The hand-waving dude is my husband, Roddy, the tall guy is my right-hand man, Pete, and that stunning bride is Palma. Such an incredibly perfect event all the way around. Love Love Love. (P.S. for those who asked on social, my dress is from Rent The Runway — Veronica Beard’s Gemma Dress. If you’re short like me, go for the petite size!)

DEEPDIVE: 👁️ The Orb: Eyeball Scans, Crypto Coins, and One Very Big Bet on Humanity

So, why did Sam Altman help create a glossy white eyeball-scanning sphere that just launched in stores across the U.S.?

Inside the opening of the World Store in Union Square in San Francisco, explaining the Orb’s to my friends at KTVU. Photo credit: Roddy Blelloch

Read all about it and watch our video below.

Here’s a recap and a few takeaways that I didn’t put in those stories:

The Orb is the centerpiece of a project called World. It’s designed to take a picture of your face and use a menagerie of tech tools to figure out whether you’re human. Most notably, it uses your iris, more unique than a fingerprint, to determine your “proof of human.” (I hate that term. It’s so Black Mirror. But I have yet to think of anything better…)
I’ve seen it turn down a dog and a robot so far, but I’m sure someone, somewhere, is already figuring out how to trick it because…hackers. But aside from the scan, it also uses temperature, infrared sensors, and other top tech to make sure you’re alive. (The company says it does not scan, it takes an image… but I say it looks like a scan, sounds like a scan…🤷‍♀️)
Once it deems you’re human, it turns that biometric pattern into a unique digital code, scatters the pieces across so many places that even the savviest of cyber criminals cannot Humpty-Dumpty it all back together again (ie., no one can share, steal, or otherwise expose your biometric data).
World then sends you a World ID to live on its app on your smartphone. Not your name. Not your government ID. Just proof that you are one-of-one: a real, live human being. You are in complete control of it and can double-dog delete it any time.

💡 Here’s why this matters to you and me:

The internet is already so flooded with convincing AI content — fake faces, fake news, fake relationships — that we'll need some way to verify the humans from the hordes of bots. The Orb is one potential (albeit really weird) fix. And it’s rolling out fast: 7,500 Orbs coming to the U.S. by year’s end, with pop-ups open in places like San Francisco, LA, and Miami.
Already, AI bots are out-persuading humans on Reddit, getting kids to commit suicide, writing five-star reviews for products that don’t exist, and sliding into DMs sounding a little too emotionally intelligent.
The Orb promises to help us sort “real from generated,” giving people a kind of digital passport to prove their authenticity across apps, sites, and platforms.

🚨 What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty. But for now, the company, including a bunch of people who made a mass exodus from Twitter when Elon Musk took over, says they’re doing everything they can to make sure they are truly building something that’s good for us.

I believe them. I believe they’re trying. But there are serious notes of concern around any kind of tech that uses your biometrics (including smartphones, tablets, and laptops you open with your finger or face scan.)

Privacy risks: Hong Kong banned the Orb over biometric concerns. Brazil is investigating.
Power consolidation: Critics warn this creates yet another centralized system for tracking and control, but cloaked in decentralization lingo.
Trust issues: When you get a WorldID, World gives you around $16 worth of their cryptocurrency, called Worldcoin. This is a whole issue in and of itself… that starts with three letters: U-B-I.

💰 What’s UBI? And why is Worldcoin handing out crypto like coupons?

So here’s the deal: when you sign up for a World ID — by letting a shiny orb scan your eyeball — you get about $16 worth of crypto called Worldcoin. Think of it like a welcome gift… or a “thanks for your eyeballs” bonus. (It’s no different from all those phone carriers offering you a free phone for signing up with them, or credit cards giving you extra points or miles.)

But what’s the big idea behind all this?

It’s tied to something called Universal Basic Income, or UBI. That’s a fancy way of saying: “What if everyone got a little money — no strings attached — just for existing?” No job required. No paperwork. Just enough cash to help cover basic needs.

In World’s sci-fi-meets-Silicon-Valley vision, AI will get so powerful that it’ll do tons of work humans used to do. The profits? They’ll be huge. And maybe, just maybe, some of that money could be shared with everyone — through systems like Worldcoin.

The problem? We’re not there yet. AI isn’t pumping out cash like an ATM. Worldcoin’s own currency goes up and down more than a kangaroo. And right now, UBI is more of a promise than a plan — kind of like a movie trailer for a film that hasn’t been made.

So yeah, free money is cool. But trusting a crypto project to reinvent the global economy? That could be a much bigger ask than it seems.

🔧The Internet is broken. Do we trust these guys to fix it?

Let me be clear. I’m impressed with Tools For Humanity and trust all the people I met there. I believe in what they’re trying to do. World and its trippy Orb are a great start, and we have to start somewhere.

That brings us to the speculation that Sam Altman and Elon Musk are in a race to build a super app. (Thanks be that it’s not just another 🍆 rocket…).

My concern is this…they get so caught up in beating each other, we get completely lost in their brilliant madness. I have zero special insight, so this is all just me telling you what I think (it’s my opinion — NOT news/journalism).

We’ve all trusted big tech before, and it’s burned us over and over.

Do they set out to hurt us? Probably not. But they don’t insist on the very guardrails they know could make their products safer for the people they rely on to use them. They “move fast and break things.” I’m tired of those “things” being us.

Again, I don’t think this is what the folks at World or TFH are doing — at all. I’m talking about the big picture tech industry as a whole.

It’s kind of like building a playground on a cliff, handing kids a jetpack, and hoping someone figures out a parachute before recess ends.

Somewhere along the way, it all just gets away from them. They not only drink their own Kool-Aid, they bathe in it, baptize our kids in it (ours, not theirs), and leave people like you and me struggling to keep up, catch on, and claw our way out of the digital rabbit holes they keep digging deeper.

And guys — we’re the smart ones. What about the more vulnerable among us? People who kill themselves when tricked by AI, believe algorithm-fed fakes and conspiracy-laced fiction … because the machines and algorithms and AI forces working to control their brains are just that good.

So why should someone like my cousin in Kenai care?
Because this isn’t just “tech bro stuff.” This is infrastructure. If World ID catches on, it could be the next digital passport — required for dating, voting, even proving you're a person in a sea of AI influencers. And if you’re not paying attention now, you’re missing the creation of the Internet of the future. Like, the next five years’ future.

PITCH ME!

Got a pitch for me? Or an idea for something I need to cover, problem I need to solve, or just want to chat? Be sure to reach out!

💬 Got thoughts? Questions?

Random musings about scams, or products you’re seeing get the tariff hike from hell?

Email me, text me, or drop a comment @JennJolly on Instagram — and pretty please follow me there too! (I'm maxed out on Facebook friends, so hit up my “official” page if you want the real deal.)

Other important tech-life stories to read this week:

WSJ: Mark Zuckerberg wants you to have AI friends. Lots of them… that Meta controls.
WSJ: Intimidated by AI? Here’s how to get started.
Washington Post: Meta’s New AI app gets personal in a very creepy way.

I’m digging deep, asking the uncomfortable questions, and (hopefully) keeping us all a few steps ahead of the chaos.

Because the future is weird — and way too important to sit out.

Oh… and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

xo, Jenn