This does not work, for similar reasons why captchas piss off real humans.
You add a barrier here. You think that your solution means that AI is reduced, but you also reduce real humans. I noticed this with other parts too, such as "you need to verify your identity before you can post to the ruby issue tracker". I can do so, but I need my tablet and this takes me more time than before, so I stopped using the ruby issue tracker altogether. (It's not the only reason, but adding barriers really makes me invest my time elsewhere - more likely to do so at the least.)
You always need to consider all trade-offs. Charging money means you will also offset real humans at the same time. And it's not solely about the cost; it is simply a hassle to want to do so. For similar reasons I also rarely register at a phpbb forum - I need to store the password to not forget it etc... so more hassle. Using a password manager is also more of a hassle.
I can't access gnu.org, because their extreme measurements against the AI bots blocking my slightly older browser.
> Charging money means you will also offset real humans at the same time.
On completely different scales. Even if it not perfect, it is strong enough of a filter to turn a bot infestation into a mild annoyance.
Metafilter and Something Awful both do this.
Both sites have survived and continue to work well for their users.
A small cost does definitely work for some sites.
Yeah, I tried to sign up for instagram, but at the fourth captcha I gave up and left. How does instagram have any users with such a hostile sign-up barrier?