The Man Who Stopped the Spammers
Unsung Science
CBS News
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
By the year 2000, the internet was already becoming a cesspool. The bad guys used software bots to sign up for millions of fake email accounts—for sending out spam.
PhD student Luis Von Ahn stopped them. He invented the CAPTCHA, that website login test where you have to decipher the distorted image of a word. Or you have to find the traffic lights or fire hydrants in a grid of nine blurry photos.
Those tests help to keep down the volume of spam, spyware, and misinformation; they advance the clarity of digitized books and the intelligence of self-driving cars; and, by the way, they made a handsome profit.
The only problem: We HATE those tests!
Guest: Luis Von Ahn, co-inventor of CAPTCHA, co-inventor and CEO of Duolingo.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | By the year 2000, the internet was already becoming a cesspool. |
| 0:08.0 | Software bots were signing up for millions of fake email accounts for sending out spam. |
| 0:14.2 | Luis Vannon stopped them. |
| 0:16.6 | He invented the CAPTA, the website log-in test where you have to decipher the distorted |
| 0:22.7 | image of a word, or you have to find the traffic lights in a grid of nine blurry photos. |
| 0:28.9 | The only problem? |
| 0:30.1 | We hate that test. |
| 0:31.7 | I would be at a party and people would ask me what I did, and I would tell them that |
| 0:34.8 | I helped invent that thing, and people would tell me, oh, I hate you. |
| 0:37.5 | I'm David Pogue, and this is Unsung Science. |
| 0:47.2 | For two decades, FBI agent Robert Hansen sold secrets to the Kremlin. |
| 0:51.4 | He violated everything that my FBI stood for. |
| 0:54.6 | Hansen was the most damaging spy in FBI history, and his betrayals didn't end there. |
| 0:59.5 | Do I hate him? |
| 1:00.5 | No, I don't hate anyone. |
| 1:02.0 | But his motive. |
| 1:03.0 | I would love to know what his two motives so I can get that out of me. |
| 1:07.2 | How did he do it? |
| 1:08.4 | Why? |
| 1:09.4 | Follow agent of betrayal to double life of Robert Hansen wherever you get your podcast. |
| 1:13.5 | You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. |
| 1:18.2 | In season one, episode 14, the man who stopped the spammers. |
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