Skip to main content

Facebook uses AI to help the blind ‘see’ images

facebook ai image reader for blind on blue
Facebook uses AI to read image descriptions for blind people Image used with permission by copyright holder
Facebook is ready to help blind people ‘see’ images via artificial intelligence. The new feature, called automatic alternate text, works with existing screen reader apps used by blind and visually impaired people. The AI-generated descriptions identify objects and scenes but there is no facial recognition –although we can imagine it’s on the way. So you if you share an image with A visually impaired friend it won’t tell him or her who is in the picture or what everyone is wearing, but it might read “Image may contain: three people, smiling, birthday cake.”

There are more than 246 million people around the world with severe visual impairments and 39 million who are blind, according to Facebook. More than 2 billion photos are shared daily on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Automatic alternate text can help social media be more inclusive.

Recommended Videos

Facebook’s automatic alternate text introduction follows Twitter’s announcement last week of a 420 image character description field also intended for visually impaired people who use screen readers with mobile devices. With the Twitter app the person who composes the Tweet also writes the description. The Facebook feature automatically attempts to describe the image, with the disclaimer “Image may contain.” Of course, a Facebook post creator has plenty of space to describe images already, while Twitter limits regular text to just 140 characters. In each case blind and visually impaired people get less of a raw deal.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Facebook’s automatic alternate text feature is available now for people who use iOS devices in English in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The company plans to support more platforms, languages, and market in the near future.

The accuracy of Facebook’s automatic alternate text feature matters and will likely improve over time.

We imagine that facial recognition is already on the planning board. On the other hand, perhaps it’s better not to attempt to identify people in photos Until the tech is flawless. Imagine if a Facebook screen reader misidentified and called out the wrong names. In some circumstances that could be pretty embarrassing.

Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown Contributing Editor   As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…
A Musk-backed group just offered a $97 billion unsolicited bid for OpenAI
Sam Altman at The Age of AI Panel, Berlin.

In what is becoming an increasingly tiresome and petty personal spat between a pair of tech billionaires, the Wall Street Journal reports Monday that a consortium backed by xAI CEO Elon Musk has made an unsolicited, $97.4 billion bid for control over rival OpenAI. This offer comes mere months after Musk sued the company over its plan to transition to a for-profit business structure.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," the WSJ cited Musk as saying in a statement provided by his lawyer, Marc Toberoff, to the OpenAI board. "We will make sure that happens."

Read more
DeepSeek AI draws ire of spy agency over data hoarding and hot bias
DeepSeek AI chatbot running on an iPhone.

The privacy and safety troubles continue to pile up for buzzy Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek. After having access blocked for lawmakers and federal employees in multiple countries, while also raising alarms about its censorship and safeguards, it has now attracted an official notice from South Korea’s spy agency.

The country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has targeted the AI company over excessive collection and questionable responses for topics that are sensitive to the Korean heritage, as per Reuters.

Read more
Amazon plans to spend an estimated $100 billion on AI in 2025
AWS sign in Javitz Center NYC.

AWS sign in Javitz Center NYC. Fionna Agomuoh / Digital Trends

Amazon spent $26.3 billion in capital expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2024, and that is "reasonably representative" of what it plans to spend each quarter of 2025, CEO Andy Jassy said during the company's Q4 earnings call on Thursday. The "vast majority" of that spending will reportedly go towards Amazon Web Services and AI development.

Read more