Facebook debuted a new artificial intelligence system today that can describe photos in stunning detail, making the social network even more accessible to visually impaired users.
“Worldwide, more than 39 million people are blind, and more than 246 million have a severe visual impairment. As Facebook becomes an increasingly visual experience, we hope our new automatic alternative text technology will help the blind community experience Facebook the same way others enjoy it,” a Facebook blog post today from Facebook’s Head of Accessibility Jeffrey Wieland and his team said.
Mark Zuckerburg took to Facebook to explain further.
“We just launched a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help people who are blind experience photos on Facebook.
When blind or visually impaired people use the internet, they use something called a screen reader that turns text into spoken words. But until now, screen readers haven’t been able to describe what’s in a photo.
Using artificial intelligence, we’re able to understand what’s in a photo and describe that for someone using words. This is a great use of AI technology, and it’s an important step towards making sure everyone has equal access to information and is included in the conversation. Check out this video to see how it works.”
