THE THING WE BUILT:

CAPTCHAI

(Completely Automated Protocol for Testing Communication and Human Authorial Intent)

AI is supposed to make communication faster. But that’s not always how it plays out.

Like when someone sends you an email you suspect they didn’t write themselves. Or you’re reviewing a tech spec that looks almost too good - the format, length, and words are all “right.” But it doesn’t match the context of the project at all…

The receiver reads it, gets confused, sends a clarifying question back. The original sender fires off another maybe AI-generated response, one they didn’t fully read or didn’t fully grok.

Three days later the Ask is finally executable. Hopefully🤞

AI didn’t make communication faster. It made vague thinking easier to ship.

So instead of AI slowing down your project, I built a thing that slows down the sender.

You’re familiar with CAPTCHA: prove you're human with an absurdist micro task before proceeding.

CAPTCHAI (Completely Automated Protocol for Testing Communication and Human Authorial Intent in action) is the same idea, different proof.

How It Works

1. Write your email. Hit send.

2. CAPTCHAI reads your email, scanning for clarity on the things that matter most.

3. If your email is clear with actionable insights, your email Passes. Your email sends.

4. If your email is unclear with fuzzy AI-generated vagueness, it Fails. CAPTCHAI then asks clarifying questions you must answer. If your answers are specific enough to act on, it fixes the email so you can send. If not, you try again until it Passes. Then it sends.

Notes from Building

The idea was inspired by unchecked AI writing, but it kind of applies to everything. Could you slow down, reread your own email, and make sure you’re not just passing the problem to someone else? Have you ever shipped an email or a DM that required 10x the time on the other side to figure out your ask? (I’ve never done it myself. But maybe you have. Certainly not me.)

The bot is unusually good at finding the gap. It doesn’t feel the social pressure to pretend something makes sense, so it asks the obvious questions. The ones that expose when you’re thinking out loud instead of making a clear ask. CAPTCHAI pushes that into focus. What needs to happen, by when, and who decides.

The demo is email. This could be everywhere. The same gate could live in front of Slack messages, tickets, briefs, prompts — anywhere unresolved thinking gets shipped as someone else’s problem.

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