How I Built This with Guy Raz reCAPTCHA and Duolingo: Luis von Ahn
May 25, 2020
Luis von Ahn, a brilliant computer scientist from Guatemala, shares his inspiring journey from creating CAPTCHA to co-founding Duolingo. He reveals how a chance encounter led to the development of reCAPTCHA, monetizing language learning while tackling email spamming. Von Ahn discusses the challenges of maintaining a free platform and navigating monetization, highlighting Duolingo's mission to democratize education. His path symbolizes innovation's intersection with personal challenges and societal needs.
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CAPTCHA's Origin
- Luis von Ahn attended a talk by Yahoo's chief scientist about their bot problem.
- He and his advisor developed CAPTCHA as a solution and gave it to Yahoo for free.
CAPTCHA Acronym
- CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.
- It was designed to distinguish humans from bots.
No Initial Profit
- Despite CAPTCHA's widespread adoption, Luis von Ahn didn't profit initially.
- He gave the technology away, and other websites copied it.