Together with my advisor, Manuel Blum, I co-invented CAPTCHAs, or computer-generated tests that humans are routinely able to pass but that computers have not mastered (they are the squiggly computer letters that are prevalent across the web).

Because education is such a broad area, I chose to focus on language learning.

If you get asked to do something that would take place down the road (say you get asked to speak at a conference that's a year away) and you wouldn't want to do it if it were taking place next week, then don't do it. This advice has helped me evaluate the opportunities that I truly want to dedicate my time to and those that I don't.

Every time you buy tickets on Ticketmaster, you help to digitize a book.

[Captchas] are not only annoying, but they kill 10 seconds of your time.

I worked on a number of projects that were used by millions of people and that also served as inspiration to what we now call "crowd-sourcing."

I am an early riser, and always wake up between 5 and 6am.