--- title: "CAPTCHAs Are Getting Harder Because AI Is Getting Smarter" description: "CAPTCHAs are getting harder for people to solve because artificial intelligences are getting too good at solving them, according to a new report." date: "2019-02-02" modified: "2019-02-02" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/captchas-harder-ai-smarter" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "bots" - "captcha" - "the digest" --- # CAPTCHAs Are Getting Harder Because AI Is Getting Smarter ![]() *\Image: Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## CAPTCHA Atcha If you feel like it's getting harder to solve CAPTCHAs — which stands for the mouthful "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," but which you probably know as the squiggly text or image identification puzzles websites use to weed out bots — you're right. That's the conclusion of a [fascinating new story]() in *The Verge*, which traces the history of CAPTCHAs — and finds that**,** basically, it's just getting harder and harder to tell humans and artificial intelligence apart. ## Bunch of Squares \[LOL\] Back in the day, CAPTCHAs could fool algorithms by asking users to interpret distorted fields of text. But by 2014, bots were [better at solving the puzzles than humans](). Many websites have since switched to image identification — Google often asks you to identify crosswalks and traffic lights — but now AI is getting better at cracking those, too. "We're at a point where making it harder for software ends up making it too hard for many people," University of Illinois at Chicago computer science professor Jason Polakis told *The Verge*. "We need some alternative, but there's not a concrete plan yet." ## Voight-Kampff The bottom line: It's getting hard to tell humans and computers apart. And that's extremely worrisome as more of the web becomes astroturfed by [bots that act like people](), spreading content on social media and generating fake views. "The tests are limited by human capabilities," Polakis told *The Verge*. "That's very limiting in what you can actually do. And it has to be something that a human can do fast, and isn't too annoying." **READ MORE:** [Why CAPTCHAs Have Gotten so Difficult]() \[*The Verge*\] ***More on CAPTCHAs: [CAPTCHAs Are Dead, and Neural Networks Killed Them]()*** ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()