Scientists say they have developed a computer model that fundamentally breaks through a key test used to tell a human from a bot.
You’ve probably passed this test hundreds of times. Text-based CAPTCHAs, a rough acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart, are groups of jumbled characters along with squiggly lines and other background noise.
You might be asked to type in these characters before signing up for a newsletter, for example, or purchasing concert tickets.
There are a staggering number of ways that letters can be rendered and jumbled together where it is usually intuitive for a human to read, but difficult for a computer. The ability to crack CAPTCHAs has become a key benchmark for artificial intelligence researchers.