Now Facebook To Use AI to Describe Photos to Blind Users
Facebook is preparing its computers to become seeing-eye guides for visually impaired and blind people as they scroll through the pictures posted on the world’s leading online social network.
Social media giant Facebook is and has been very specific about is not disaffecting any users. According to media report said it has started using artificial intelligence (AI) to describe the content of photos to blind and visually impaired users.
Artificial intelligence is intended to be taking over the world, however along the way, it seems to be helping out humans from time to time. Today’s example: Facebook is utilizing its artificial intelligence network to describe photos to the blind.
"Now we can offer a richer description of what's in a photo thanks to automatic alt text. For instance, someone could now hear, 'Image may contain three people, smiling, outdoors,' “reads the blog post.
One of the fundamental reasons why Facebook gain as much popularity as it does today is because of photo sharing. It’s been more than 10 years since Facebook users have possessed the capacity to transfer their photos on the social network, and since then the idea of photo sharing has been the basis of online social interaction.
Facebook said that there were two approaches it could have taken to the problem, and it chose the one it believed would be most successful .
Matt King, a Facebook engineer who is blind, said “We could probably require people when they upload a photo: ‘please describe this for blind people.’ It would drive people nuts — that would never work at scale.” (This is the actual approach Twitter is taking to the problem though adding descriptions is optional.)
"While this technology is still nascent, tapping its current capabilities to describe photos is an important step toward providing our visually impaired community the same benefits and enjoyment that everyone gets from photos," the company announced.