Ask HN: Is GPT-4 the end of CAPTCHA as we currently know it?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35197784

by ricberw • 3 years ago

3 3 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

If it is, what will replace it?

If it isn’t, what evidence do you have?

PaulHoule2• 3 years ago

I think ReCAPTCHA has been a bit of a scam for a real long time.

It's really about embedding trackers all over the web and giving you one more reason to be logged into Google all the time. In the end you are better authenticated as a human by the muddy footprints you leave all over the web and all the clicking on traffic lights over and over again annoys you more than it would annoy an A.I.

Neural networks were better at breaking many CAPTCHAs than humans even in the late 00's, the exception was when the letters overlapped with each other, segmenting those was hard back then.

I knew somebody circa 2009 or so who had an SEO blog who published a freaking PHP script that used a neural network to break CAPTCHAs which was a step too far and caused his blog to get attacked by putative Russian hackers. The FBI got involved and it was a big hassle for all of us.

Now, if GPT-4 can automate chrome and surf the web for you and do a good job of imitating a human over a long period of time, ReCAPTCHA could be in trouble...

Nextgrid• 3 years ago

Captcha has been dead since services such as http://decaptcher.com (no affiliation) will pay humans to solve 1000 of them for $2.

PaulHoule2• 3 years ago

One thing that’s replaced it is making people register a mobile phone number.

Ask HN: Is GPT-4 the end of CAPTCHA as we currently know it?

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