The problem

It's hard for us tell what's real anymore. Fake profiles, generated comments, endless waves of automated content. It all erodes trust, divides communities, and manipulates our shared reality.Our anti-bot tools were built for the past. They authenticate. They check passwords, browser activity, phone numbers, CAPTCHAs, mouse movements. While useful, they never actually confirm that a human is present. As bots get exponentially better, that gap is breaking the internet.We need something more fundamental: a way to admit only humans at the moment of every interaction.

• So what is Dydema?

What is Dydema?

Dydema (dai-deh-mah) began at the University of Texas @ Austin. It grew out of research in machine learning, biomedical engineering, and neurotechnology.Dydema uses human physiology to confirm live presence — and gate access to digital spaces accordingly. We create subtle, living signals all the time: electrical activity, tiny heartbeat changes, micro-movements. In concert, these are extremely difficult for automated systems to spoof in real time. By verifying these unique signals at the moment of interaction, Dydema lets platforms know that a real person is here, right now, before granting access.There are no puzzles to solve, and no personal info to hand over. Dydema simply provides confirmation that you’re here and that you're human, and that everyone else with Dydema is, too.Our first prototype is a headband that reads signals like EDA, HRV, and EEG. Our machine learning interprets those signals to tell whether it's being worn by a human, in real time. If something looks unusual, the system can ask for a natural gesture — a blink, a breath, a motion.

• What about privacy?

Safety and Privacy

We believe human presence can be the foundation for a AI-age internet, but Dydema cannot be a new platform for control. It must be a protocol simply for knowing there’s a person on the other end.

Dydema’s goal is to confirm life, not monitor it. We will only verify that a human being is present.No focus/attention tracking. No emotional tracking. Where we can, we’ll process data on-device. Some steps may require de-identified data on secure servers, and we’ll be open about that. Before launch, we’ll bring in outside reviewers to audit our privacy and security.You’ll always know what’s measured and why.

• Where do we start?

Where we start

"You should get working on [Dydema]... I would like to launch my book on a platform without bots." - Author @ The University of Iowa

When everyone in a space is verifiably human, what you see and share online regains value. Users, creators, and builders know their audience is genuine, and that interactions come from real people. Therefore, we’re also creating our own human-only community platform, where presence is required to participate. It’s a pilot for creators, buliders, researchers, and early adopters who care about the human internet. From there, the API will open up to developers who want to integrate presence gating into their own spaces. The road ahead looks like:

If you’d like to follow our progress or get involved, join our updates list. You’ll hear from us as we work towards release.

• Get involved!