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0 pointsreaperman1y ago0 comments

So, I do this type of AI development for solving CAPTCHAs.

I can't get any real jobs that pay me for my more advanced skills. My primary sins were going to a second/third-tier university and some performance concerns in a portion of my previous roles due to divorce and burn-out. I make $80k/year in government IT, and $30-150k/year as the "AI" guy in a small 2-5 person group that offers a CAPTCHA-breaking API.

The spammers aren't the ones replicating this. They just pay B2B rates (combo of SaaS + Consulting, depending on client needs) to help them remove the roadblocks.

0 comments

jostinian1y ago

I am a nafri with a PhD and engineering experience (with europeans), I can't make good living going the traditional way either with with remote jobs being impossible and no luck landing a visa.. I have built custom solutions for big name EU companies to keep an eye on the competition through scraping. captcha solving cloudflare bypass is a great part of that. Getting back at companies making the UX bad with captcha does feel good also.

HeckFeck1y ago

Why do you do this?

While I can appreciate the technical achievement, you know most users of forums and imageboards don’t want any AI content at all.

KomoD1y ago

> Why do you do this?

Money, obviously. I'd also do it for $30-150k/year

> you know most users of forums and imageboards don’t want any AI content at all.

He's not creating or posting any "AI content"?

HeckFeck1y ago

Okay, but you know his actions are enabling more AI content and spam to proliferate? I hardly think he is making that much money just because legitimate users don't want to fill in a captcha.

5 more replies

Forgeties791y ago

People who do jobs like that don’t really care about the impact

noprocrasted1y ago

The percentage of captchas used to deter spam is probably a minority these days. A lot of captchas nowadays are used to prevent adversarial interoperability or the free flow of information.

If you want to spam, you don't actually need to break many captchas. Just make your spam/scam/misinformation "engaging" enough and the social media platforms will host and promote your spam _for free_ and won't even ask a captcha.

reapermanOP1y ago

This precisely. Our clients are generally looking at adversarial interoperability.

But the rhetoric around the assumption that I was doing it for spammers was also interesting, as well as being more closely related to TFA!

Der_Einzige1y ago

Being able to spam and mind control 4chan would be amazing just for personal reasons, let alone how juicy that is to governments around the world!

lukas0991y ago

It's working for the Russians.

benreesman1y ago

If there were a totally 100% aboveboard way to do this in a net transfer of utility from Tessier-Ashopool SA to the typical web surfer I would be a superfan.

blackjackfoe1y ago

Is your company hiring? :)

ryandrake1y ago

Despite the spamming angle, I think CAPTCHA-breaking is, on the balance, noble and honorable work. These things are user-hostile blights on the web, and any effort towards making them disappear as useless is worthwhile. Sites worried about spam should invest more in automated spam classification/elimination instead of punishing real users with CAPTCHA-solving. Not that I can offer a solution--if I could, I'd be a millionaire.

persnickety1y ago

Who do you think spam classification false positives are going to be pubishing if not real users? At least with a captcha, you have some idea that you were rejected before you put in the effort to write your comment.

ape41y ago

$30-150k/year is a big range

TZubiri1y ago

Ahh the good ole dilemma of selling your soul, you study what you love only to destroy it for profit. Like an entomologist hired by a pesticide company.

I get it man, gotta make the bucks helping spammers advertise their shitty products, even if they destroy the internet.

noprocrasted1y ago

What about the spammers that already destroyed the internet by steering it entirely towards advertising & surveillance capitalism? It's like the pot calling the kettle black.

We're all complicit in the enshittification of the internet and technology in general, just that we delude ourselves into believing we're on the "good" side because we call it "advertising" or "marketing" or "analytics" instead of spam, more spam and spyware.

The end result is exactly the same however.

TZubiri1y ago

If you are referring to google. It's what financially powers most of the free as in beer internet, so hard disagree.

There's a difference between parasites that spam and make 1000 free gmail accounts. And Google.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

jostinian1y ago

HeckFeck1y ago

Why do you do this?

While I can appreciate the technical achievement, you know most users of forums and imageboards don’t want any AI content at all.

KomoD1y ago

> Why do you do this?

Money, obviously. I'd also do it for $30-150k/year

> you know most users of forums and imageboards don’t want any AI content at all.

He's not creating or posting any "AI content"?

HeckFeck1y ago

Okay, but you know his actions are enabling more AI content and spam to proliferate? I hardly think he is making that much money just because legitimate users don't want to fill in a captcha.

5 more replies

Forgeties791y ago

People who do jobs like that don’t really care about the impact

noprocrasted1y ago

The percentage of captchas used to deter spam is probably a minority these days. A lot of captchas nowadays are used to prevent adversarial interoperability or the free flow of information.

reapermanOP1y ago

This precisely. Our clients are generally looking at adversarial interoperability.

But the rhetoric around the assumption that I was doing it for spammers was also interesting, as well as being more closely related to TFA!

Der_Einzige1y ago

Being able to spam and mind control 4chan would be amazing just for personal reasons, let alone how juicy that is to governments around the world!

lukas0991y ago

It's working for the Russians.

benreesman1y ago

If there were a totally 100% aboveboard way to do this in a net transfer of utility from Tessier-Ashopool SA to the typical web surfer I would be a superfan.

blackjackfoe1y ago

Is your company hiring? :)

ryandrake1y ago

persnickety1y ago

ape41y ago

$30-150k/year is a big range

TZubiri1y ago

Ahh the good ole dilemma of selling your soul, you study what you love only to destroy it for profit. Like an entomologist hired by a pesticide company.

I get it man, gotta make the bucks helping spammers advertise their shitty products, even if they destroy the internet.

noprocrasted1y ago

What about the spammers that already destroyed the internet by steering it entirely towards advertising & surveillance capitalism? It's like the pot calling the kettle black.

The end result is exactly the same however.

TZubiri1y ago

If you are referring to google. It's what financially powers most of the free as in beer internet, so hard disagree.

There's a difference between parasites that spam and make 1000 free gmail accounts. And Google.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse