Captcha Is Asking Users to Identify Objects That Don't Exist | Hacker News Reader

Captcha Is Asking Users to Identify Objects That Don't Exist

vice.com

49 pointspseudolus27 comments

Off topic, but I’ve noticed Vice pumping out a lot more content since they…uh…went bankrupt

final hurrah

More like a death rattle.

Probably they have articles "on the heap" for filling or summer or something, which they are now cranking out for click numbers. Maybe also a bit of chatGPT

That's why I've been super annoyed when companies started using speech recognition robots, and are trying to force customers to talk to them. "Please tell us why you are calling. You can say anything!".

"Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding that. Let's try again. You can say anything and I'll understand!"

Sometimes it helps to give it the silent treatment. Let it ask 3 times, don't wear out your voice or raise your diastolic, and then maybe you're transferred to an intelligent prison inmate.

They'll optimize that to hang up on an inactive line.

Most companies that I've called, already have.

I’ve had good luck just mashing the key pad with 40-50 digits when a robotic menu answers a call, it tends to find a human pretty quickly.

Or just as bad, “You can say things like [10 year pause] x, y or z” All of which are trivial tasks I could have done in 5 seconds online and I would never and am not calling about. If I’m calling by definition it’s a special situation. Put a fucking human on the phone, now. Nothing makes me so angry so fast as these IVR mazes.

What you have to understand is the far more common median case of some boomer that steadfastly refuses to use a web interface under any circumstance and would rather just call up and ask about any old trivial thing. For that scenario, translating the web interface into interactive-call-robot interface solves every problem and makes everyone happy.

This stereotype seems like a hangover from ~40 years ago that's now inconsistent with logic and arithmetic.

Personal computers have been around for longer than young people have been alive.

If you're in your twenties, you can't possibly have forty years of experience using computers.

Not every oldster was using computers and smartphones as soon as they could, but the ones that were increasingly tip the balance.

What I see is that these companies would be happy to waste 1000 hours of customers' time to save themselves $5. So even if the useful cases of the IVR/automation is rare, it's still a net win from their perspective. Especially in markets (most of them) where it's not going to be a competitive difference because they all do it.

The insult to injury is the prerecorded "Your call is important to us" Yeah I'm sure it is, that's why you have a nearly-zero-cost robot telling me that while you put me on hold because you didn't want to hire an adequate numbers of reps, right?

Here's a magic summoning spell for you. It must be said with intent and sufficient pause between the three incantations for letting your voice echo through the aether. With enough fortitude, the seal will be broken and a kindred spirit will emerge:

"Llaiw Æhgynt. Llaiw Æhgynt. Llaiw Æhgynt"

Complex vowels? Got it!

https://xkcd.com/2657/

I prefer the gag in Demolition Man where a human answers the phone and says "if you would like an automated response, please press '1' now".

- Open the pod bay doors HAL

- Please click each image containing a Yoko

Oh no.

Ono.

So this is how it begins, with mild annoyances. It will be a sad day when we stop being annoyed and simply know that we should answer however it wants us to.

Must be payback for the every time I intentionally misidentify the objects in the images.

I actually got this one a few days ago.. was quite an annoying one, but I did pass it by clicking on anything that looked like it was from Myst.

Am I the only one that doesn’t think these look hard to solve? It shows you an example of what it’s looking for, who cares what word it uses to describe that thing, can’t you just pick the similar pictures?

The 'click on the middle of the bear's nose' hCaptchas were an improvement, but they only seemed to happen for a week or so, now we're back to the AI garbage pile.

is this what the singularity feel like

  [ ] I am not a human

I understood the nominative determinism of this service after 2 hours on the first server I found. I did not hesitate to destroy my account soon after, and I haven't looked back. I am fairly confident that the authors worship Eris.

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