"When Guatemalan computer scientist Luis von Ahn first proposed the idea of "games with a purpose" (GWAPs) in 2004, his goal was to harness human brainpower so that computers could learn from it. His idea was simple: Get humans to solve tasks that are trivial to us but difficult for computers back then, like labeling images, transcribing text or classifying data."
"But when humans solved CAPTCHAs, they were unknowingly transcribing words from scanned books and newspapers that computers couldn't digitize. Von Ahn sold reCAPTCHA to Google in 2009."
"In 2011, he and Severin Hacker founded Duolingo, applying the crowdsourcing model to language learning: Users translate texts and label images in exchange for free lessons, creating a massive database of high-quality language data which is monetized: It trains AI models and is used for Duolingo's commercial English proficiency exam."
Luis von Ahn pioneered the concept of "games with a purpose" (GWAPs) in 2004, designing systems where humans solve tasks trivial for people but difficult for computers, such as image labeling and text transcription. His ESP Game paired players to describe images, with matching labels verifying data. Google licensed this concept for Image Labeler. Von Ahn's reCAPTCHA, sold to Google in 2009, had users transcribe digitized text while solving security puzzles. Later, Duolingo applied this crowdsourcing model to language learning, where users translate texts and label images for free lessons while generating high-quality language data. Tech companies monetize this user-generated data for AI training and commercial applications, effectively converting human labor into valuable computational resources.
Read at www.dw.com
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