Microsoft’s impossible captchas are giving the internet an existential crisis

If you've had the unfortunate pleasure of attempting to create a Microsoft account in recent years then you've likely encountered one rather frustrating obstacle – the captcha. While my confidence in the fact that I'm human is typically unwavering, Microsoft's bizarre captchas have made me question myself, and it seems I'm not alone. 

For years there have been whisperings online about the confusing and convoluted nature of Microsoft's devious captchas. With seemingly unsolvable puzzles, captchas have come a long way since the days of deciphering jumbled letters or identifying traffic lights – but why? Of course, like everything that's good and existential in this world, it's AI. 

Microsoft captcha... I've been trying to create an account for half an hour now. from r/softwaregore

The issue has been brought to public attention via countless Microsoft Community posts, many uttering the same problem – the captchas are next to impossible to solve. Whether they get trapped in a verification loop or are simply unsolvable, it's become enough of an issue that it has roused the attention of Reddit. In extreme cases, some users have reported losing hours trying to solve the puzzles, while many simply give up. 

The strange captchas range from rotating an animal to the correct upright position to deciphering audio files or using cryptic visual clues to place a person in the correct position. Users on Reddit have theorised that the influx of bizarre verification puzzles is the work of Arkose Labs – a company focused on making purposely obscure captchas to train AI. With Microsoft listed as one of its big-name customers, it seems it's not just an empty conspiracy theory; there's a valid reason the company resorts to these puzzling designs. 

The actual f**k github. Is microsoft really that desperate to get people to train their new AI technology? from r/github

Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil as the old-school text-based captchas can be easily deciphered by current AI, making them redundant in protection against bots. It's not a surprise, as even back in the day, captchas were used to train AI models for the likes of Google Maps and transcription services, so it's natural that they'd have to amp up the difficulty. So while they're difficult for a reason, the theory is that they're also increasingly complex to collect data for AI training. The smarter AI gets, the harder it is for us to prove to Microsoft that we're real. Yep, that seems fair. 

Thankfully, brands like Apple have found ways around the internet's most irritating feature, enabling auto-verification options that mitigate the need to prove your human status. AI is here and it's increasingly interweaving itself into our everyday lives – the best we can do is try not to get too existential. And Microsoft, maybe cool it with the impossible captchas, haven't we suffered enough?