The Relevance of Aadhaar in the Era of AI

Previously, we raised a question: "Why Do You Need Worldcoin When You Have Aadhaar?" However, it turns out that despite Aadhaar's presence, Worldcoin might still hold significance, or vice-versa. 

When Aadhaar was introduced, its aim was to provide ‘proof of residence’ with a 12-digit unique identity number. However, now as we move ahead with AI picking up pace, it might become difficult  for Aadhaar to serve its purpose.

Proving your personhood might become difficult in the near future from what you might have imagined. In the physical world, it is easy to identify humans based on their physical characteristics. However, advancements in AI will make it difficult to distinguish between AI and humans in the virtual world, highlighting a need for authentic human recognition and verification. 

For instance, social media platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) offer easy account creation processes. Musk recently highlighted Twitter's bot-related challenges. In order to combat this, he, alongside his team, introduced the verification system with X Premium (previously Twitter Blue), aimed at curbing bots, and implemented new APIs to mitigate their impact. However, these efforts have mostly proven unsuccessful. In a similar vein, Meta has recently been making strides in discerning between AI-generated and human-created content.

With companies like Meta and X facing challenges with rapid growth of AI there is a high chance that the Indian government might be left behind. In a recent blog post, Worldcoin expressed their willingness to assist governments in addressing the impending identity crisis. Worldcoin said that World ID is an open source, permissionless protocol that anyone can use. “All of the developer docs are freely available to the public and the government can freely make use of it” they said. 

Worldcoin vs Aadhaar

By now we are aware of all data the Aadhar card has collected. This includes Name, Date of Birth, Gender, Address, Parent/ Guardian’s name, mobile number and email id. The UIDAI  also collects biometric information to establish uniqueness – therefore collecting photos, 10 fingerprints and iris. 

Nevertheless, there's a significant issue here — all the data and information are interconnected. If someone gains access to your Aadhaar database, they essentially possess a comprehensive profile of you. In one instance in June 2022, a small sample of  farmers’ information and corresponding Aadhaar numbers were exposed by the PM-Kisan website, as revealed by TechCrunch. This was not the first time where Aadhaar data was leaked, there have been several instances in the past where privacy of citizens was compromised. 

Here, World ID  comes into the picture as its underlying identity protocol powered by zero-knowledge proof. A zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic technique where one party can prove something is true to another party without revealing any specific details. Zero-knowledge proofs first appeared in a 1985 paper, “The knowledge complexity of interactive proof systems”

Another fascinating feature of World ID is You don’t need to enter any personal information to get or use the World App. This means no name, no phone number, no email, no social profile, no selfie, no passport, etc.

Should Aadhar Collaborate with Worldcoin? 

Recently, Worldcoin announced that it is open to partner with governments and organisations, this would be the right opportunity for the government of India to hold hands with Worldcoin and bring in Zero knowledge proof technology to Aadhaar. The  trust of the citizens of a nation lies with their government  rather than a company.  

Going solo isn’t the solution for Worldcoin as well because the population of India is huge, and it will take an exceptional effort to cover the whole country. As on 30th  November 2022, the Authority has issued 135.1071 crore Aadhaar numbers to the residents of India. 

With Aadhaar offices already there all over the country, the government should take measures to make Aadhar relevant in the times of generative AI  otherwise it will become very difficult to catch up later on and probably get replaced by Worldcoin. Aadhaar and UPI have shown over time of what India can offer the world and India has the chance to show it can do it again.