Am I human?

How AI made me justify my humanity.

Friends,

Don’t laugh.

I have a funny—and equally frightening—story to share with you this week.

I was (almost) defeated by AI.

It started as a normal day. I was browsing online and, unsurprisingly, got diverted to one of those “prove you’re human” activities.

It looked different. But from experience (as I’m sure you know very well too), it’s often straightforward with little to no attention required.

Without giving it much thought, I clicked a few buttons, only to be told to try again. This must be a mistake, I thought. I am human.

Without a witnesses to testify my mishap, I laughed it off as a careless mistake. I clicked on a few more buttons, only to find myself denied again.

That got my attention! I admittedly felt vulnerable.

I caught myself justifying my humanity to myself.

I re-read the instructions, devoted a little more attention, and lucky for me (and my ego), third time was the charm.

CAPTCHAs are those things that intrude on our intended destinations while browsing the Internet.

Remember when it was about identifying distorted letters or selecting crosswalks on a grid of images? While they used to feel like a kindergartener’s game, I wish I took a picture of what I was presented instead.

This version was not child’s play.

It was a grid, but with multiple funny looking symbols—none of which were recognizable common symbols we’d find on our keyboards or something on the periodic table of elements.

Each of these odd symbols were attached to a color coded squiggly line, which I had to match for as well.

What struck me the most about this particular CAPTCHA was how odd it felt. Did AI come up with this too?

To my surprise and a little research, I found out that though CAPTCHAs are systems invented by human developers, the actual challenges are generated automatically by software and an algorithm.

Excuse my language— BUT WTF?!?

Yes, in case you didn’t know “even CAPTCHAs are AI generated now.”

“Research reported in July 2023 showed that most [AIs] can solve CAPTCHA images with 96 per cent accuracy, compared to humans who range from 50–86 per cent.” (Source: BBC Science Focus.)

While we were training AIs by using CAPTCHA, now AI seems to be overriding us.

I welcome the laughter, to laugh at me, for this silliness, but what was most bizarre about this experience was here I am, fully aware as a real living, breathing, human being; and yet, here I was confronting a machine, trying to prove to it that I am in fact human.

The irony is not lost on me.

As AI becomes more intelligent, I wonder what unforeseen consequences are we not seeing? Are we creating a future where artificial intelligence will outsmart us far beyond our capacity? What becomes of humanity if we can no longer comprehend the world we’re living in?

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to say, that if our world is ever increasingly more dependent on technology, algorithms, and software, that these independent agents will continue to iterate, to no end, but critically missing the morality and context of humanity.

Weeks like this week—considering everything that’s been happening in the world, I truly can’t help myself but wonder, has humanity lost control of our world already?

BBC Science Focus seems to agree with me too:“How AI finally won its war on CAPTCHA images.”

Fun fact: Luis von Ahn, the founder of Duolingo—the language learning platform with a green owl mascot—was also one of CAPTCHA’s co-inventors. His 2023 interview on How I Built This with Guy Raz is worth listening to if you’re interested in a story about the resilience of a math and computer science genius who’s invented some of the most essential and world-changing technologies in our lifetime.

Thank you for spending some of your day with me.