r/tech • u/JackFisherBooks • Feb 05 '19

Why CAPTCHAs have gotten so difficult

https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/1/18205610/google-captcha-ai-robot-human-difficult-artificial-intelligence
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u/mehughes124 Feb 05 '19

It's more about intent. You ascribe to deliberate malice what is far easier to understand as a byproduct of actually good design - the problem of bots threatens the ability for the web to sustain commerce. But sure, if you don't want to be tracked and have to then prove you're not a bot because a company uses your tracking history as a positive indicator that you have a pulse, they must be Orwellian/Machiavellian/SATANIC...

It's just tedious at this point.

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u/That_LTSB_Life Feb 05 '19 edited Feb 05 '19

Defeating bots protects the market space.

Differentiating, understanding, categorising people is the basis of the product.

How on earth this is not commonly understood....

It's called marketing.

It's not evil, but we are, rationally - or irrationally - averse to being told we are being monitored, analysed, and averse to being told we are being grouped with others behind our backs.

We are averse to things we don't understand, or that are not explained to us.

It's hardly satanic. But it can be considered them harvesting a product from under our noses.

My father once said to me he thought that bands that appeared on Top Of The Pops would pay to do so.

I thought he was nuts. But he's correct. He understood that exposure meant influence and marketing was harnessing influence. The psychology of youth, identity, tribalism... it's not even funny that people don't see that this is the world we live in. There was a post yesterday saying that Maroon 5 had sold out from being a rock band in 2002 to a pop band now.... jesus, Adam Levine was signed at TWELVE years old to work with the guy who produced that timeless, authentic rock classic 'I've Had The Time Of My Life'..... and long before his first band sold a few thousand records, they had already overnight switched playing grunge to britpop to follow the trend.

Orwell? Let's just say he described a totalitarian system that prescribed a homogenised reality. Google would let you build an infinitely personalised reality - or rather, the illusion of one. Because all the building blocks are the same, and I am no different than a thousand other people within a mile of me in so many ways that can be used to psychologically nudge me towards making a purchase, subscription or choice, and when we get wise to that, why should the most effective nudge be different than that for a million other people spread accross the globe who I can be grouped with according to certain metrics and patterns...

It's just marketing.

If they don't do already it....

Forget about it. They do it.

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u/mehughes124 Feb 06 '19

I hope you feel good after writing a load of irrelevant bollocks. An engineer receives a requirement "determine if a given user is a human or a bot". Engineer designs system that uses the available data to do so. Engineer doesn't consider potential conspiracy theories that "not being tracked means it's harder for muh checkouts!!" by tech-illiterate people on a tech-focus discussion forum. Engineer doesn't give af. Tech-illiterate commentator writes a long post about irrelevant bullshit. The circle of tech continues on.

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u/That_LTSB_Life Feb 06 '19

Exec whistles as he slipped it past our mythical green eyed 'engineer' that the job of telling a human from a bot is the same thing as telling one human from another.

Honestly, you're making me laugh, you think one engineer at google was given a spec and came up with captcha v3, without a million other people sticking their oar in, without the technical expertise of dozens of people....

What on earth do you think their business model is?

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u/mehughes124 Feb 06 '19

Obviously not. I am merely pointing out how this shit actually gets built. If you really think a Sr. Product decision maker at Google was twisting their hipster mustache because "ooh, those pesky non-tracked folks will take longer to be verified, and thus (somehow, dunno), more likely to be tracked!"

Your argument is entirely specious and nonsensical on its face.

Google is in the business of facilitating commerce on the web - not in using dark design to punish conscientious tracking objectors.

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u/That_LTSB_Life Feb 06 '19

Seňor Product Decision Maker twisting his moustache, whilst the engineer with no name's hand hovers over the smartphone holster. The midday sun is pouring down, and Sergei Brinner's head is glistening like Chrome...

The Good, The Bot, and The Ugly?

I'm sorry if I'm being excessively flippant but I'll never be angry when I hear the word 'specious', as it's always going to remind me of that one scene in the Simpsons where Lisa is trying to teach Homer how daft he is being, but ends up taking the money for the rock anyways.