What emerging technologies mean for the future of trust online
Now a major player on the global stage, Lumin is thinking about global problems.
Good afternoon Caffeinators!
Instead of a recap of old news from last week, we’re bringing you a fresh conversation with Lumin founder Max Ferguson, the third part in our partner series which unpacks the future of trust online as emerging technologies transform our economy.
As always, thank you to everyone who has upgraded to a paid subscription or simply recommended Caffeine to friends and whānau. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finn and the CAFFEINE team
Like so many great startups, Lumin is a company with relatively humble beginnings.
Born by solving a simple pain point of information not flowing where it needed to within a business through designing a lightweight cloud-based software, you can hear all about the founding story here.
Today, Lumin has morphed into a global platform with 100 million users and customers including Netflix and Uber.
Now a major player on the global stage, Lumin is thinking about global problems.
Sitting down for the third installment of our conversation series, Founder Max Ferguson and I discussed the topic underpinning almost every conversation in tech - the risks and benefits of emerging technologies.
"The really interesting stage we're at right now is that AI progressed to be a lot more powerful than most of the research expected," Max says. "A lot of researchers and people involved in AI have been predicting or thinking about early versions of something like ChatGPT for ages. What I think people didn't really see coming was this current wave of agents."
Recent advances in agentic AI are rapidly reshaping what our digital economy could look like. These AI systems can now browse the web, publish content, and act autonomously online. But as their capabilities accelerate, so do potential threats to trust.
Max highlights a particularly insidious emerging risk: AI-driven impersonation scams. Max points to an existing local scam which could be super charged by AI, where scammers created fake real estate listings online, directing potential renters or buyers through legitimate property viewings.
The victims, convinced by the authenticity of their experience, then transferred deposits directly to the scammers.
"That scam was happening before AI, but now you can imagine that it can just be run entirely by AI," Max warns. "An AI agent could handle all the communication, and that's really scary for governments because they've built structures around being able to hold someone accountable and punishing them through the justice system. How do you do that with an AI agent? It's trickier."
For Max, one of Lumin's primary focuses in addressing these threats is robust identity verification integrating with Lumin’s existing infrastructure.
"We're seeing digital driver's licenses getting rolled out across Australia, which is super cool," Max says. "What that allows is proper verification in a digital environment. When signing a document, making a payment, opening a company, all of those things can be done against verified IDs which prevents malicious AI actors from pretending to be people."
Max is clear that government-backed digital identification will be key to the future. He notes that global pressures have significantly accelerated internationally, making immediate implementation a priority overseas.
"The pressure has ramped up for this to be delivered really quickly," Max explains. "Across many countries, this might have been a five or ten-year project. But suddenly, with AI, it's become a top priority."
A cornerstone of Lumin’s security strategy is embracing what's known as a ‘zero-trust’ model. It’s a somewhat paradoxical term referring to systems designed precisely so they don't require trust in any single entity.
After all, the most trustworthy system is one that doesn’t ask for your trust, it simply has safety baked into its structure.
"Zero trust means that customers don't necessarily need to depend entirely on Lumin, we aren’t holding all of the cards," Max explains. "We're a facilitator of the signing, working in synergy with security and cryptography and technology from companies like Apple or even the government. This means there's no single point of failure."
In an increasingly borderless world, the issues posed by emerging technologies require global solutions and that requires collaboration between governments, tech giants, and companies like Lumin.
Max acknowledges a core challenge to that synergy: building an interoperable identity infrastructure, or protocol, which is accepted globally. He believes the digital groundwork already exists, but international regulatory alignment remains crucial.
"It has to be global because we don't want a world where your digital New Zealand driver's license isn't accepted overseas," Max stresses. "A lot of standards are already in place like the ISO standard for mobile driver's licenses. What's left is government adoption and building the regulatory environment to support these changes."
The horizon for this global integration might seem distant, but Max sees significant progress already underway. Digital licenses are rolling out now in New South Wales, Queensland, and soon the UK. Twenty states in the US have signed onto similar initiatives.
As for what the global protocol might look like, Max says Lumin is ‘agnostic’.
“We're not pushing a specific standard. We just believe that standardization's great. So even if there's two or three standards out there, that's okay. But it is super important that everyone settles on some standards to get everything nice and interoperable. Otherwise, you will go to another country and all of your stuff won't work.”
Of course, while it dominates the headlines, generative AI isn’t the only emerging technology founders should be watching closely.
One risk coming into view is quantum computing, essentially a radically more powerful form of computing capable of tackling problems that would be impossible for traditional processors.
Without getting too into the weeds, much of the internet's security infrastructure depends on complicated math. From the basic HTTPS protocol on the website you’re reading this off to the blockchain a trader is moving their crypto along, they're protected by layers of math problems a bad actor would need to crack to access your information.
Quantum computers are uniquely good at solving those kinds of problems. They can solve in seconds what would take traditional computers centuries, imperilling foundational protections to our digital lives.
"Quantum does pose a threat, but it's probably five to ten years away," he says. "which means we have time to think about these problems and respond. And luckily that work is already underway. AI threats, however, are immediate. They're applicable right now."
Max points to chillingly realistic deepfake scenarios. One business Lumin partners with recently had a hiring experience where they believe an applicant used deepfake technology to alter their visual appearance during an interview.
For Max, the solution lies not in retreating from technology, but in leaning into secure innovations, like biometric-backed digital identification. He cites Apple's Face ID as a model of success, automating mundane steps while preserving critical human consent.
"If we had a digital global passport, when you go to present your passport digitally, that can happen with Face ID verification," he explains. "It’d be protected with biometrics, making identity theft significantly harder."
Despite technical challenges in implementation of security, Max is optimistic, excited by the productivity gains AI offers small businesses and individuals.
"Sam Altman talks about the single-person billion-dollar business. It's aspirational, but possible. AI puts immense power into individual hands, empowering small businesses to perform tasks previously reserved for large corporations."
Max says that’s the future Lumin aims to unlock: "Our vision at Lumin is to be the invisible infrastructure which empowers small businesses to act like big businesses. We float a little in the background, helping to automate and erase a hundred small points of friction, freeing you to chase the big ambitions. That's what we're excited about."
The potential and pitfalls of technology have never been clearer. As Max and the team at Lumin navigate these frontiers, their approach offers a blueprint for building a safer, smarter, and more trustworthy digital future.