Revolutionizing Human Computation

Successful entrepreneur Luis Von Ahn's computer talk compares and contrasts the capabilities of humans versus computers in problem solving. While humans excel in solving certain types of problems, such as image-based, and computers at others, such as mathematics, Ahn explores the idea of combining both together to tackle larger-scale issues.

Ahn explores the notion of human computation as a way to bring together the benefits of both computer and human-based problem solving tactics. This project, titled reCAPTCHA, analyses problems that a computer or a human cannot solve on their own but could solve if working together. Ahn explains, "The idea with human computation is to combine both humans and computers together in a very large scale to solve problems that neither can solve alone." Specifically, reCAPTCHA wants to digitize novels which requires the help of a computer to scan the pages and the help of crowdsourcing to decipher distorted text when computers cannot.