You’re not dreaming: Those ‘I’m not a robot’ CAPTCHA tests are getting harder

If those bothersome CAPTCHA prompts online seem to be getting harder, it’s because they are.

The pesky puzzles are used to ward off bots that crash sites or jeopardize security but now are becoming increasingly more difficult for even the average human to decipher as the technology of malicious actors evolves.

An acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” CAPTCHA prompts traditionally show a scramble of letters or numbers for the user to regurgitate, or a bevy of images which, upon viewing, are supposed to be grouped by those that feature motorcycles, bridges, crosswalks or other fixtures.

But, according to the Wall Street Journal, the anti-bot puzzles are getting more weird and difficult, asking humans to identify objects that are the same shape, click on the only nonaquatic animal or select “the red object in front of the object that appears once.” 

“Is it just me, or have those ‘I am not a robot’ tests started getting harder?” British comic Jack Whitehall quipped in his latest Netflix special “Settle Down.” He lamented his inability to correctly identify stoplights, joking he’s “either a robot or a cyclist.”

He added: “Has anyone had that moment recently where you have failed the I-am-not-a-robot test so many times that you have that moment where you stop and go … ‘Maybe I am a robot?’ ”