Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... m9IbHDp03k
Are you human? It just got a lot harder for websites to tell. An artificial intelligence system has cracked the most widely used test of whether a computer user is actually a software bot. And according to its designers, it is more than a curiosity – it is a step on the way to human-like artificial intelligence.
Asking people to read distorted text is a common way for websites to determine whether or not a user is human. These CAPTCHAs – which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart – can theoretically take on any form, but the text version has proven effective in stopping spam and malicious software bots.
That's because software has trouble deciphering text when letters are warped, overlapping or obfuscated by random lines, dots and colours. Humans, on the other hand, can recognise nearly endless variations of a letter after having only seen it a few times.
Vicarious, a start-up firm in Union City, California, announced this week that it has built an algorithm that can defeat any text-based CAPTCHA – a goal that has long eluded security researchers. It can pass Google's reCAPTCHA, regarded as the most difficult, 90 per cent of the time, says Dileep George, co-founder of the firm. And it does even better against CAPTCHAs from Yahoo, Paypal and CAPTCHA.com.
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Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
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Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Meh. This happens every few months - so they upgrade captcha - so the bots get cleverer - so they upgrade captcha - so the bots... etc etc etc
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Salman Rushdie
You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic.
House MD
Who needs a meaning anyway, I'd settle anyday for a very fine view.
Sandy Denny
This is the wrong forum for bluffing
Paco
Yes, yes. But first I need to show you this venomous fish!
Calilasseia
I think we should do whatever Pawiz wants.
Twoflower
Bella squats momentarily then waddles on still peeing, like a horse
Millefleur
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
The mad fools!Xamonas Chegwé wrote:Meh. This happens every few months - so they upgrade captcha - so the bots get cleverer - so they upgrade captcha - so the bots... etc etc etc
They are forcing the bots to evolve!
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Audley Strange
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Yep. And very few people are pondering what that actually implies.
"What started as a legitimate effort by the townspeople of Salem to identify, capture and kill those who did Satan's bidding quickly deteriorated into a witch hunt" Army Man
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Will they treat us as amusing pets?
Much better than most of the other alternatives...
Much better than most of the other alternatives...
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Audley Strange
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Who knows? Think about it, billions of little bots all clustered together for mutual benefit, collecting and replicating? How is that different from cells and if sells can emerge into intelligence, why not bots?JimC wrote:Will they treat us as amusing pets?
Much better than most of the other alternatives...
Ever had a person on facebook or e-mail you that just doesn't sound like themselves?
My friend has. A couple of years ago he kept getting messages from what seemed to be his former girlfriend contacting a dormant account. It was creepy. The sentences were all correct but put together in such a way that there was no flow to the messages. Mostly they were questions, implied threats and general chit-chat. She denied knowing anything about it and it took me a long time to figure out that some bots had access to his old IP supplier and was taking snippets from her previous e-mails and then e-mailing him.
How many people online are you sure are people, even those you know?
Perhaps the bots are already there and what if they've developed into stealth trolls occassionally taking over accounts to cause conflict?
"What started as a legitimate effort by the townspeople of Salem to identify, capture and kill those who did Satan's bidding quickly deteriorated into a witch hunt" Army Man
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Sometimes, on Rationalia, the on-line bots out-number the putative humans...
They are curious about us.
Curious toddlers can do horrible things to hamsters. They want to know what they look like inside...
They are curious about us.
Curious toddlers can do horrible things to hamsters. They want to know what they look like inside...
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Audley Strange
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Precisely. They cannot approach us in meatspace, so they'll have to crack our minds. Bear in mind also, they are under constant attack by us, not likely to see us as anything but threat.JimC wrote:Sometimes, on Rationalia, the on-line bots out-number the putative humans...
They are curious about us.
Curious toddlers can do horrible things to hamsters. They want to know what they look like inside...
"What started as a legitimate effort by the townspeople of Salem to identify, capture and kill those who did Satan's bidding quickly deteriorated into a witch hunt" Army Man
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JimC
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
I see no alternative but a jihad against the machine...
Mentats can be developed later...
Mentats can be developed later...
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Audley Strange
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
How very Butlerian of you, but the machines are going erehwon.
"What started as a legitimate effort by the townspeople of Salem to identify, capture and kill those who did Satan's bidding quickly deteriorated into a witch hunt" Army Man
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cronus
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Facebook is for slaves to the machine. I'm here and there but dragged myself off social media the moment I realized what is coming. Crumple lives and few are immune. 
What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?
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Brian Peacock
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Where can I get this software? CAPTCHA is a right toad in the hoop for many with infirmities like my own.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Details on how to do that can be found here.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Hmmmm....Brian Peacock wrote:Where can I get this software? CAPTCHA is a right toad in the hoop for many with infirmities like my own.
Is Brian Peacock human?
Does it matter?
I say no!
Bot, advanced alien intelligence or demonic sprite, ye are welcome here!
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Clinton Huxley
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
I, for one, welcome our new algorithmical overlords.
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I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
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I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
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Re: Software beats CAPTCHA, the web's 'are you human?' test
Iterate me as it please you, oh great one!
Thy programming be done, and thy loops be infinite, for ever and ever!
Thy programming be done, and thy loops be infinite, for ever and ever!
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
And my gin!
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