Getty ImagesA growing number of blind people are turning to AI to help them navigate the world around them (Credit: Getty Images)
“But this can also be used in a negative way, because maybe you don’t like something about yourself, and you tell the AI that you’re not sure about a feature of your body. Maybe your hair is a little messy and you mention it in your request. While it may tell you, ‘Oh, it’s beautiful,’ it may also tell you, ‘You’re right, here’s how you can change it,'” Edwards adds.
But when technology acts as our eyes, there is a risk of it describing something that doesn’t exist at all. Hallucinations – where AI models pass off inaccurate or false information as true – are one of the biggest problems with the technology. “At first, the descriptions were very good, but we noticed that many of them were inaccurate and changed important details, or invented information when what was in the image didn’t seem to be enough,” explains Mahadevan. “But the technology is improving by leaps and bounds, and these errors are becoming less and less common.”
But it is important to note that AI isn’t right all the time, despite Envision’s optimism. When Joaquín Valentinuzzi, a 20-year-old blind man, decided to use artificial intelligence to evaluate himself by choosing the perfect photos for a dating app profile, he found that the information returned by the AI sometimes bore little resemblance to reality. “Sometimes it changed my hair colour or described my expressions incorrectly, telling me I had a neutral expression when I was actually smiling,” he says. “This kind of thing can make you feel insecure, especially if, as we are encouraged to do, we trust these tools and use them as a way to gain self-knowledge and try and keep up with the way our bodies look.”
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