This talk is about harnessing human brainpower to solve problems that computers cannot. Although computers have advanced dramatically over the last 50 years, they still do not possess basic conceptual intelligence or perceptual capabilities that most humans take for granted. By leveraging human abilities in a novel way, I want to solve large-scale computational problems and collect data to teach computers basic human talents. To this end, I treat human brains as processors in a distributed system, each performing a small part of a massive computation.

Luis von Ahn works in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship. He has been named one of the 50 Best Minds in Science by Discover Magazine, one of the "Brilliant 10" of 2006 by Popular Science Magazine, one of the 50 most influential people in technology by Silicon.com, and one of the Top Innovators in the Arts and Sciences by Smithsonian Magazine. His research interests include encouraging people to do work for free, as well as catching and thwarting cheaters in online environments.