Why AI Training Is a Human Responsibility

The humble CAPTCHA is a good way to keep bots honest. CAPTCHA -- created in 1997 -- is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. "It's a type of challenge/response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human," says Wikipedia. In the past, they were simple: a string of letters and numbers in different sizes and fonts. Nowadays, they often present as a grid of nine thumbnails, with instructions to check off all images of cars, bicycles, or crosswalks. No one is overly fond of this task -- we squint at our laptop screens, trying to figure out if a grainy image contains a traffic light or not. We complete the task, only to face another screen of thumbnails. What we're doing is essential, though. Computers are run by algorithms, while humans have real-world training. When we scan a street for motorcycles or crosswalks, we're not thinking of sun interference or how much of the image our retinas capture.