CLEAR founder: fast AI can be safe AI when we fix the identity layer

Somewhere today, someone will call a corporate help desk and say they are locked out. The voice will sound right. The employee ID will match. The caller will know the answer to security questions. Within minutes, they may have access to systems worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Increasingly, the person on that call will not be who they claim to be.

Documents and credentials have long served as proof that you are you. Driver’s licenses were created to show you can drive and Social Security numbers were created to track wages. Neither was built to prove who you are and what you should have access to. Yet, over time these credentials became stand-ins for proving identity and online verification has exacerbated the problem. Data breaches hand attackers the right facts, and generative AI can now supply a matching face and voice. Someone can know what you know, look like you and sound like you, and still be someone else.

In a short time, we’ve moved from AI writing content to taking action on our behalf. AI agents can buy products, move money and open sensitive systems for us. That’s an enormous opportunity for efficiency, speed, and innovation, and it raises the stakes to get true and trusted identity right.

Payments, as just one example, show why this moment matters. Google, Visa, and Mastercard are building systems enabling AI agents to make payments and access credentials like credit cards. Innovation is what makes digital agents enormously useful in everyday life, and it shows how quickly our capabilities are moving. 

We need to make sure all of this sits on a strong foundation, otherwise we’re building a skyscraper on sand. A fraudster impersonates an executive on an account-recovery call, takes over her account and registers an agent, and fraudulent transactions ensue. The company’s security controls technically worked, as the agent faithfully carried out the fraudster’s instructions. If true identity were confirmed, we could have stopped the damage that followed. 

Everything rides on that first identity decision. Today, that decision often comes down to a password, a security question and a phone call. None of those methods prove it’s the right person. That’s why proof of identity is the foundation of agent security, not a separate compliance exercise.

CLEAR is a certified, Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology under the Department of Homeland Security. Over 16 years we’ve learned that true and trusted identity can strengthen security and deliver faster travel, safer experiences, less friction, and better days. 

AI is where we are going, and the potential is massive. Prioritizing identity infrastructure is what unleashes this technology safely. The debate around AI often gets framed as speed versus safety. In our experience, you can have both – it’s the AND. Slowing down AI isn’t the answer, and neither is letting agents run on weak credentials. When trusted identity is embedded, you get both. 

When an AI agent acts, the system needs to answer two questions: Did a human authorize this? And was that human strongly verified? Many enterprises struggle to answer the second question, but that’s the biggest opportunity to move both quickly and safely. 

Conventional evidence cannot count as proof alone. If information can be researched, bought on the dark web or generated by a model, it is not proof of identity. Traditional evidence, like passwords or ID numbers, create new vulnerabilities, and this is where true identity matters most.

Proof of identity should travel with the person. Building an immutable link between the person and identity and then seamless, continuous and rigorous confirmation everywhere they go. Today’s technology makes that possible while keeping the experience frictionless.

None of this means slowing AI down. I’m very optimistic about what AI will unlock. Trusted identity is how we get there faster, with the safety and simplicity we all want.

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