human computation

Human computation refers to various ways in which humans are used as part of computer calculations. This may include paid labour to translate portions of text that AI cannot interpret, or crowdsourcing using volunteers or those engaged in apparently unrelated tasks. One of the earliest examples of human computation, was the use of reCAPTCHA, a form of 'verify you are human' technique to fill in gaps in OCR of old documents.

Human computation is related to human-in-the-loop techniques, and the two terms may be used interchangably, however 'human-in-the-loop' tends to refer to situations where the human is taking active and accountable control of ultimate decision making, whereas 'human computation' has connotations that the human being used as a cog in the machine.