AI bots use a YOLO model to beat Captchas, just another way that computers are better than us

Have you ever been frustrated because you can't seem figure out the Captcha test at first? Prepare to be even more annoyed, as a new complex bot will be able to beat the Captcha test with 100% certainty.

Researchers studied and utilised a model called "YOLO" to solve image-based captchas, as spotted by Tom’s Hardware.

This study showed that the captchas it was presented with could be solved 100% of the time. The paper states that "Our findings show that current captchas are not immune to the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligent."

Captchas, also known as the annoying tests, are required before you can visit certain websites, log in or do anything else. They are a form Turing Test that is used to distinguish between a human and a robot. This can be used in order to prevent inflated numbers of users on websites and stop bots scraping data or spamming messages.

Captchas are also important in preventing DDOS attacks (distributed deny of service), where bots overload servers to take down a website. If bots are able to solve Captchas this could pose a significant security risk for websites.

This bot only works with Google's reCaptchav2. Google's reCaptchav3 was launched earlier this year. It can tell based upon your website usage and behavior whether or not you are a robot, which is harder for AI.

Some users may not be able use v3 because they don't visit the website regularly. They will be forced to stick with v2, which is not necessarily safer, but more convenient for others.

The study is concerned about the future of Captcha and its need to evolve along with it. "Our findings are a critical point in the ongoing dialog between AI capabilities and cyber security. They show that captcha technology must evolve in a proactive manner to keep up with AI's rapid advances.

"This is more than an academic challenge. It is a vital step towards ensuring the continued safety and reliability of our online environments."

This is a very important issue. But I can't deny that I'm more concerned about the fact that an AI is better than me at beating captchas.