Altman's Orb Company Falsely Promoted Bruno Mars Partnership
Original: Sam Altman’s Orb Company Promoted a Bruno Mars Partnership That Doesn't Exist
Why This Matters
Highlights credibility issues in tech startup marketing and partnerships
Tools for Humanity, Sam Altman's eyeball-scanning startup, promoted a fake partnership with Bruno Mars for its Concert Kit ticket verification product. Bruno Mars Management and Live Nation confirmed they were never approached about any collaboration.
Tools for Humanity announced at an April 17 San Francisco event that its Concert Kit product would launch with Bruno Mars' world tour, offering verified humans exclusive VIP experiences. Chief product officer Tiago Sada made the claim during the presentation, which was also published in a company blog post. However, Bruno Mars Management and Live Nation told WIRED the partnership 'does not exist' and they were never contacted about working together. The company has since edited its materials to replace Bruno Mars with Jared Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars for a 2027 European tour. Tools for Humanity, cofounded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2019, uses iris-scanning orbs to verify human identity and combat bots in ticket sales.