Someone Else Pays for Your AI Access

Short summary

Access control systems (geoblocking, KYC, biometrics) create evasion supply chains: proxy operators harvest customer logs and source verified accounts through biometric harvesting in regions like Cambodia and Kenya. Policy debates ignore the externality—real people in the global south complete verification for $30 per identity, then have their faces resold for fraud, blackmail, and deepfakes. This supply chain mirrors Worldcoin's iris-scan harvesting of vulnerable populations.

• •Anthropic's Fable shutdown (June 2026) triggered biometric harvesting supply chains in lower-income countries for account verification
• •Chinese developers access Claude at 10% cost through proxies that harvest logs and require verified accounts sourced from vulnerable populations
• •AI access evasion mirrors Worldcoin's pattern—externalities of policy fights are borne by the global south

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.