VIDEO: Luis von Ahn Harnesses Brainpower

As the latest tech products and applications launch at CES this week, we are releasing Luis von Ahn’s talk about the power of big groups and small increments of time to solve problems computers cannot. What other forms of social good are possible in this new decade as we turn more attention to microcontributions of time and energy?

Watch Luis von Ahn on harnessing brainpower.

Computer scientist Luis von Ahn’s programs harness the human brainpower to solve complex problems. von Ahn invented ReCaptcha, a program that uses squiggly characters that humans easily decipher but blocks spambots – and helps digitize millions of old texts. The CMU professor also makes games that use human knowledge to improve computers. Find them at gwap.com.

Go Deeper:

- Luis’s blog and personal site

- See more examples of transcription accuracy and reCAPTCHA resources

- ZDNet on new questions for reCAPTCHA (December 2009)

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