Google reCAPTCHA Is Becoming Invisible

Many Web developers rely on Google’s reCAPTCHA service as a way for users to prove that they are humans and not machines. According to Google, the newest version of the service will be invisible to most end users thanks to machine learning.

CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” Some CAPTCHA services require users to input characters they see in an image or to select the cats in a grid of pictures. In the past, Google’s reCAPTCHA service frequently just asked users to check a box to indicate that they are human, but the new version won’t even have that — most of the time. The majority of users, who don’t look suspicious, won’t see a CAPTCHA at all, although some users may still have to pass a test. Google didn’t explain much about how the technology works but said it uses “a combination of machine learning and advanced risk analysis that adapts to new and emerging threats.”

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