Bots are better and significantly faster than humans at cracking Captcha tests, according to a comprehensive new study that inspected the security system deployed in over 100 popular websites. Automated bots pose a significant threat to the internet because they can masquerade as legitimate human users and perform harmful operations like scraping content, creating accounts and posting fake comments or reviews, as well as consuming scarce resources. “If left unchecked, bots can perform these nefarious actions at scale,” warned scientists, including those from the University of California, Irvine. For over two decades, Captchas have been deployed as security checks by websites to block potentially harmful bots by presenting puzzles that are supposed to be straightforward for people to solve – but very difficult for computers. Earlier forms of Captcha, for instance, asked users to transcribe distorted text from an image, but with advances in computer vision and machine learning, bots soon caught up to recognise the text with near perfect accuracy. Engaged in an arms race with bots, Captchas have since evolved into an annoying presence on the internet, becoming increasingly more and more difficult to solve for both bots and humans. However, the new yet-to-be peer-reviewed research, posted in arXiv, finds bots are able to quickly crack Captcha tests with ease, suggesting global effort users put into cracking these puzzles every day may be more trouble than its worth. In the study, scientists assessed 200 of the most popular websites and found 120 still used Captcha. They took the help of 1,000 participants online from diverse backgrounds – varying in location, age, sex and educational level – to take 10 captcha tests on these sites and gauge their difficulty levels. Researchers found many bots described in scientific journals could beat humans at these tests in both speed and accuracy. Some captcha tests took human participants between nine and 15 seconds to solve, with an accuracy of about 50 to 84 per cent, while it took the bots less than a second to crack them, with up to near perfection. “The bots’ accuracy ranges from 85-100 per cent, with the majority above 96 per cent. This substantially exceeds the human accuracy range we observed (50-85 per cent),” scientists wrote in the study. They also found that the bots’ solving times are “significantly lower” or nearly the same as humans in almost all cases. Since current Captchas do not meet the required security goal of keeping bots away, researchers have called for better and more dynamic approaches to protect websites. Read More Shock for millions of voters as details exposed in hack – which went undetected for a year AI-driven cyberattack can now steal your passwords with near 100 per cent accuracy, study warns More than a million NHS patients’ details compromised after cyberattack Many adults would struggle to understand video-sharing platforms’ rules – Ofcom Now even Zoom tells staff: ‘Come back to the office’ Ozzy Osbourne PlayStation tweet which failed to reveal link to Sony banned

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Referees could be replaced by robots within the next 30 years, an expert in the field believes. Artificial intelligence is already prominent in officiating, with the use of VAR and goalline technology, but it is expected to heavily increase in the future. With more high-quality data available, it could be possible for matches to be officiated by an AI-powered machine, taking away the need for an on-field human referee. “Computer vision will be more and more effective in the next few years and the number of cameras on the pitch will only increase,” Aldo Comi, chief executive of leading global football analytics provider Soccerment, told the PA news agency. “The amount of data that is tagged and the quality of the models that are trained with that data will increase exponentially and thanks to that you will have AI models that can make refereeing decisions on the back of what they see on the pitch. “So we might get to the point where we don’t need a referee at all. “Before that, you will maybe have a referee but not linesmen, maybe they will be the first to disappear from the game. And you will have the referee connected to the virtual assistant, guiding them to make better decisions. “Ultimately in a matter of 20 or 30 years probably the referee will be just an AI. I am not saying this is positive, I’m just saying it is likely to happen.” The increase of AI and machine learning in football will not be restricted to officiating and it is already present in the game. The use of data analytics have helped the likes of Brighton and Brentford disrupt the established Premier League hierarchy as they have unearthed high-quality signings which they have sold on for significant profits. But the improvement in the integration of data could see managers using a virtual coach to help them with team selection and tactics. “AI can become a source of new ways of thinking about the game in the next few years,” Comi added. “If you give AI enough high-quality data, you will have the possibility to have a virtual assistant, which will have a better understanding of what is going on the pitch. Ultimately in a matter of 20 or 30 years probably the referee will be just an AI Aldo Comi, CEO of data analtyics company Soccerment “By having the data analysed by AI you can train models to better understand what will happen in the future, for example understanding the probabilities of what is happening in the next five or 10 minutes. “By having this predictive analytics, the AI can give you a so-called prescriptive analytics. It says, ‘Things are expected to go this way, in order to improve your chances I have 10 ideas’. “That could be swapping two players or changing the structure of the team. “The things that the AI suggests will be filtered by the assistant coach and then pass on the information to the manager and it will be up to him to accept. “There will be AI, but not replacing professionals, but it is more of a high-quality support. The clubs that can get this sport will outperform the ones that refrain from having it.” Comi, whose company serve several Serie A and Serie B clubs, says that people will need to learn to trust AI but the evidence of it working is already out there. He added: “It will take time to trust, but in the same way with data analytics, there are enough positive cases to say that you can out-perform the others, we have seen it with Brentford and Brighton. “The advantage that AI can give you is X times more important than data analytics.” :: Soccerment has launched a new platform, xvalue.ai, which has introduced never seen before metrics such as Gegenpressing Intensity (GPI), Expected Offensive Value Added (xOVA), Gegenpressing Efficiency (GPE) and BuildUp Disruption Percentage (BDP%), providing users with more data insights than ever before. For more details visit www.soccerment.com Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Football rumours: Al-Ittihad set to make record £215m bid for Mohamed Salah Joe McCarthy delighted after wrestling his way into Ireland’s World Cup squad On This Day in 2020: Ian Bell announces intention to retire from cricket