Ghost Font: A Visual Message Only Humans Can Read
Ghost Font: A font that humans can read but AI cannot
I created Ghost Font, an experimental tool that uses motion, noise, and decoys to hide messages in videos readable by humans but nearly impossible for AI models like ChatGPT or Claude to decipher. Unlike previous anti-OCR fonts, this approach defeats modern AI perception by ensuring static frames reveal nothing, forcing agents to analyze complex motion patterns. This project explores the limits of AI while preserving a unique space for human communication.
While Ghost Font is hard for AI to read, it's also pretty hard for humans to read! The gap continues to close.
- SyneRyder
Took me a long time to realise that "Written In Ghost Text" wasn't actually the text I was meant to be reading, and that was only the decoy message.
I can barely read the actual message, and it's about as "readable" to me as the Magic Eye 3D pictures. Actually I think I have a headache from looking at it on a mobile screen.
As a research idea it's cool though. But I do wonder if/when AI models will figure out how to decode it - I imagine a bit of additional prompting would get them there.
- rav
> For example, it would be interesting to incorporate Ghost Font into CAPTCHA systems, as most systems are easily solved by AI today.
It seems to me like it should be easy enough to take Ghost Font, apply normal video compression techniques, and analyze the compressed signal to recover the visual outline of the letters, which you would then analyze with OCR (or an AI I guess ...). In other words, a novel CAPTCHA technique but not necessarily "fundamentally more difficult" than existing CAPTCHA techniques, once the cat-and-mouse game gets going.
- Kiro
GPT-5.6 had no problem seeing the text when giving it a video recording of it.
"No problem" as in using temporal analysis with optical flow and vertical-displacement maps to estimate how the image moved, and combine those into a motion map with increased contrast to see the text. I didn't give it any instructions though, just asked it what it said.
- ssl-3
I pasted a screenshot of the default text ("GHOST FONT") into ChatGPT 5.6 Sol, told it to read it, and without further instruction it chewed on it for awhile before coming back with:
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
STAYS IN VEGAS
- freehorse
It is smart, but it is not impossible to crack algorithmically imo. In particular, one can take two consecutive frames and run perturbations moving one frame around (ie shift the indexes) to find where the difference between the two consecutive frames minimises. Then subtract these two (perturbed) frames and ocr it. Works easily if the movement is linear/one-directional.
I did this in 20 lines of code (checking only vertical perturbations), and this is what I get with subtracting frame 7 from frame 1:
- bradley13
Humans can read it, but with difficulty. If it becomes important, AI can be taught to read it.
So...usefulness?
- xlii
Technically it's not a font, because font needs to be still. Analogy: if I took photo after book was closed would we say that font cannot be read by a camera?
Took a picture (only a single frame) and a 1s movie and threw it toward GPT 5.6 Sol (High):
Frame took 9m30s to decyper and GPT 5.6, it returned: WRITTEN IN GHOST FONT. Weird because I can only see "GHOST FONT" on the demo... but extracted data from image (I saw the highlited one) definitely looks like the "Ghost Font".
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Video is more amusing, because after 3m GPT 5.6 figured it's motion-defined and asked to run QuickTime. At one moment I got:
> The animation is a motion-defined illusion. I’ve confirmed there’s no readable static OCR layer; I’m decoding its optical-flow field so the letter shapes become explicit.
At 4m it got extracted motion image that was in shape of letters but analyzed for 9 more letters and returned (at 13m36s) "GHOST FONT"
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So:
a font... - FALSE - not a font, but video effect
...humans can read... - FALSE - I can't read it from image (but AI can!)
...but AI cannot - FALSE - it can
:D
Edit: https://imgur.com/a/SHlGu4O - work-in-progress images
- rzzzt
Related work (all involve noise and flickering images, photosensitive eyes/brains beware):
- "This game disappears if you pause it": https://youtu.be/Bg3RAI8uyVw
- "Illusion: If You Pause, The Image Will Disappear": https://youtu.be/ZqGfb_Vlrig