CAPTCHA helping the Next Generation

A while ago, I posted about CAPTCHA and how it would allow computers to understand written text and begin the process of machines being able to contextualise and 'understand' written text.

Well, it turns out that CAPTCHA is way ahead of me.

I didn't know this, but every time you submit a correct answer to any CAPTCHA challenge, you are actually telling the CAPTCHA database how to read the very text you've just been challenged with.

It seems that the challenges are taken from texts that were written before the advent of computers (if anyone can remember that far back...) and are used in the challenges to first of all, prevent machines from subscribing to web services such as email and profiles with the intention of spamming people from the accounts they create, but — and this is the interesting bit — the challenges are also used to verify single words scanned from texts which are difficult for machines to read.

In effect, every time you succesfully respond to a CAPTCHA challenge, you're making it more difficult for future web users to sign up to these services because, by the time CAPTCHA has 'solved' the problem of reading difficult to read text, the future challenges will become ever more difficult as the — self-taught — machines will be able to solve these challenges more readily.

That's the key phrase, here: self-taught.

So, if you want to be part of the future web, you'd better visit your library and dig out some old texts to brush up on your reading skills. The CAPTCHA computer database is...