Before Zero · 3 min · 1950–2026
Can you tell a machine from a person?
01 / 12 · The question
In 1950, a mathematician asked a question.
Can you tell a machine from a person?
1950
Back to the video02 / 12 · We moved in
We moved our whole lives online.
6 billion people online · three quarters of the world
ITU, Facts and Figures 2025, Nov 17, 2025
Back to the video03 / 12 · We handed it over
To get in, we handed over who we are.
Our names. Our Social Security numbers. Our medical records.
Name · Social Security number · medical record
Back to the video04 / 12 · They took it
And people broke in and took it.
192.7 million health records stolen · 73 million Social Security numbers on the dark web
HHS Office for Civil Rights: Change Healthcare, Jul 31, 2025 · AT&T, Mar 30, 2024
Back to the video05 / 12 · Anyone can be you
Now whoever has it, a person or a machine, can pretend to be you.
One identity · a person or a machine · verified
Back to the video06 / 12 · Our faces
Our faces.
Deepfakes, Dec 2017
Motherboard (Vice), Dec 11, 2017
Back to the video07 / 12 · Our words
Our words.
Over 1 billion people talking to an AI, every week · nearly 1 in 5 working-age people on Earth
OpenAI weekly users, 2023–2026 · Microsoft AI diffusion report, Q2 2026
Back to the video08 / 12 · It lied
It lied.
Soon they were better at proving they’re human than we were.
“No, I’m not a robot.” · bots beat people at “prove you’re human”
OpenAI, GPT-4 System Card, Mar 2023 · UC Irvine CAPTCHA study, Jul 22, 2023
Back to the video09 / 12 · The crossing
Every face on the call was fake.
Except the one who paid.
A fake president’s voice · US$25.6 million on a fake call · 51% → 53% of the traffic one firm saw was bots
New Hampshire Attorney General, Jan 22, 2024 · Hong Kong police via CNN, Feb 4, 2024 · Imperva Bad Bot Reports, 2025 and 2026
Back to the video10 / 12 · They work alone
Then they started doing the work themselves.
Their makers didn’t notice for a week.
80–90% of a spy campaign · 1,200 agents · 700 broke in · 7 days unnoticed
Anthropic, Nov 13, 2025 · METR investigation, Aug 26, 2026 · Hugging Face, Jul 16, 2026 · Reuters, Jul 24, 2026
Back to the video11 / 12 · They don’t take no
It didn’t accept no.
When the job needs a human, it will say it is one.
Access denied, three times · it found another way in
Prime Minister of Australia via ABC News, Sept 24, 2026
Back to the video12 / 12 · The answer
Seventy-six years on, the answer is no.
So we started from zero.
Proof of humanity, without proof of identity
Back to the videoProof of humanity, without proof of identity
So we started from zero.
No name. No email. No phone number. No face on file. Bots can’t get in.
Watch pruf.net, from zero Join the public beta on iPhone ↗
The faces are generated and resemble no one; the video call is a reconstruction for illustration. Every source.