Its the person that will get a reward for having their eyes scanned by the Orb. WLD coin uses that proof of identity mechanism which having your iris scan means you are a real person and you get WLD.
All they did is just scanning eyes actually , there is nothing to this project but all been doing is airdropping WLD to people willing to get their eyes scanned. It gets scary when you think of AIs today and what AIs can do to the iris identity they have.
They call it proof of personhood. I guess proof of identity has been done before (it somehow decreases the decentralization aspect). But the AI part, agreed. There could be a lot of possible identity theft.
I think they are just the same. This is not the first time we see a centralized project. The major opening for it would be the KYC. So people are not surprised about it. They are even used to this already that many are now willing to go for it in exchange for some coins. If I'm not mistaken, the project is not new and before the AI arrived, I think they are already there but since AI is still a thing now, they just ride it like everyone else.
Even without AI, the stealing of identity is still possible. Not that I'm siding them but maybe people judge them too quickly? Also their operations are in public, so if they really steal data's then they already been caught out before.