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Say good-bye to CAPTCHA, the boxes of warped text that separate humans from bots online. AI company Vicarious claims to have developed an algorithm that can pass the test about 90 percent of the time. What will save us from spam now? These alternatives could come to a site near you.

Two-step verification

Validate your user name with a confirmation code sent to your phone or e-mail.

Games

Solve puzzles, draw shapes, or describe pictures.

Timers

If a form is filled out and submitted faster than is humanly possible, the bot is denied access.

Honeypot

Programming hidden to humans but visible to bots tricks a nefarious algorithm into identifying itself and subsequently blocks it.

Motion

Using a device’s camera, a program analyzes gestures to determine whether you’re flesh and blood.

This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of Popular Science.