The internet used to be such a simple place. These days we have to solve increasingly elaborate puzzles to access some sites. Captchas, which are intended to test whether a user is a human rather than a bot, generate surprising levels of anxiety.
How much of an object needs to be in the square you click? Do you still need to click the square that contains only a slight edge of the traffic light? How perfectly does that jigsaw piece have to be aligned? Is there a right time to complete it in?
The correct answer is apparently determined by algorithms that detect the response that most humans choose. Thus the puzzles can generate an existential crises for people who repeatedly fail. Am I a robot after all?
I’m Not a Robot, a game about solving CAPTCHAs, is out now!good luck :) pic.twitter.com/QhLpFPLxkuSeptember 16, 2025
Neal Agarwal AKA Neal.Fun has taken those annoying Captchas to a ludicrous but also kind of logical extreme. He's developed a game that turns the format of the puzzles into 47 increasingly ridiculous but just about solvable levels.
We're asked to reassemble the image of a highway intersection, find 'stop' signs in a word search, enter a 'perpetrator's licence plate' and 'select all the squares with Waldo' in a Where's Waldo style illustration.
Apple had moved away from Captchas, but users have reported seeing more of them in recent months. Meanwhile, Microsoft Community posts continue to complain of impossible Captchas that need to be solved to create an account.
A game based on Captchas might sound like a nightmare, but I'm Not a Robot is both a hilarious spoof of a frustrating UX feature and a very playable and addictive game. Warning: it gets fiendishly difficult!
You can play I'm Not a Robot on the Neal.Fun website.
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