MixFont and ShieldFont Deploy Decoy Typefaces to Shield Human Writing from AI Bots
Decoy Font has been introduced by MixFont, designed to layer two messages that confuse AI scrapers while remaining readable for people. This typeface presents a distinct foreground text against a blurred backdrop, enabling phrases such as “Happy Human” to be obscured by “Sorry Robot.” The concept draws inspiration from hybrid imaging, an optical illusion developed in 2007. Eric Lu, the founder, shared with Forbes that the idea arose after AI inaccurately summarized his conversations with his mother. In July, studios Seneda & Abrucio along with PlayType launched ShieldFont, which substitutes content words with random choices, rendering bot-scraped text meaningless. Lu seeks to highlight AI's pervasive influence amid growing AI fatigue. The first Western typeface, a black-letter font, was created by Johann Gutenberg.
Key facts
- MixFont created Decoy Font, which layers two messages so AI reads one text while humans can read another.
- Decoy Font uses a clear foreground text and a blurred background text, such as “Sorry Robot” over “Happy Human.”
- The technique is a modern version of hybrid imaging, famously used in a 2007 MIT portrait of Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein.
- MixFont’s earlier Ghost Font displayed moving words on shifting television static and was readable only in video format.
- Founder Eric Lu was inspired after AI incorrectly summarized his text messages with his mother.
- In July, Seneda & Abrucio and PlayType released ShieldFont, which replaces about half of content words with random words in its source code.
- Over 90 percent of ShieldFont’s resulting gibberish is rejected by quality filters, per Fast Company’s Hunter Schwarz.
- Johann Gutenberg is credited with creating the first Western typeface, a black-letter font mimicking monks’ calligraphy.
Entities
Artists
- Eric Lu
- Johann Gutenberg
- Marilyn Monroe
- Albert Einstein
- Leslie Katz
- Hunter Schwarz
- Rima Sabina Aouf
- Christian Thorsberg
Institutions
- MixFont
- MIT
- Forbes
- Fast Company
- Seneda & Abrucio
- PlayType
- Dezeen
- Smithsonian Magazine
- Circle of Blue
- Sierra magazine
- Discover magazine
- Alaska Sporting Journal
- Mixfont
Locations
- Chicago
- United States