OpenAI CEO's Identity Verification Company Announced Fake Bruno Mars Partnership

On April 17, 2026, Sam Altman’s other AI company, Tools For Humanity, announced a partnership with Bruno Mars as he embarks on his Romantic Tour. The announcement coincided with the company’s Concert Kit tool, which allegedly allows “verified humans” to access VIP tickets and concert experiences.

However, Bruno Mars’ management and Live Nation released a joint statement on April 22, claiming that the partnership didn’t exist. “To be clear, we were never even approached by [Tools For Humanity], nor were we in any discussions regarding a partnership or tour access,” the statement read. “We first learned that our tour was being used to promote their project after their keynote made those initial claims.”

Those claims originated from TFH’s chief product officer, Tiago Sada, during a company event. The company then published a post on its website including Sada’s quote about Bruno Mars’ Romantic Tour. Eventually, word got back to Mars’ team.

The initial post on Tools For Humanity’s website has since been edited to correct the false information. A spokesperson also confirmed the company “does not have any agreement with Bruno Mars to test or feature Concert Kit.” Additionally, “there is no association or affiliation with the artist or his tour.”

Tools For Humanity is actually partnering with Thirty Seconds to Mars on their 2027 European tour. While TFH has not disclosed the actual reason for the false Bruno Mars announcement, it looks a bit like a case of mistaken identity. Pretty ironic, since the company’s whole shtick is supposedly verifying human identities.

The company launched in 2019 initially as a way to verify human identities in online spaces to prevent fraud. This included live music monopoly Live Nation-Ticketmaster, which is often plagued by bots and scammers. In 2023, TFH launched a physical identity verification device in the form of an orb that scans human irises.

Unfortunately, the orb does not also tell fortunes, which is clearly a major design flaw. If it did, they’d probably be able to prevent this Mars mix-up before it happened.