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The advent of artificial intelligence, and the pace it’s advancing at, is something everyone has an opinion on. For many of us, every new development marks one step closer to a Black Mirror-esque future, where technology has stolen our jobs and humans no longer think for themselves. But in his new BBC Two documentary Seeing into the Future, Chris McCausland tables a defence that forces even the most stubborn AI skeptics to rethink their stance.
The comedian – who began to lose his eyesight in his late teens and has been completely blind since he was around 25 years old – starts by explaining how the introduction of the iPhone’s built-in, screen-reading “Voiceover” feature has already proved to be a game-changer for him. Developments in AI are progressing things even further and the documentary sees McCausland explore both technology that’s readily available and learn more about the genuinely mind-blowing updates that could come.
He shows us how it’s changed one task: getting dressed. “Unless you can feel something is a specific item of clothing you often have to ask people what it looks like, or you have to mark them in some way,” McCausland explains. “I’ve spent a lifetime cutting labels so I know the one with a cut-off label at an angle is the blue one. With AI, you can just have it open and ask it.”
On a visit to Meta’s sprawling San Francisco HQ, he tests out their AI glasses. Maligned by many as unnerving and unnecessary, the high-tech specs open up new possibilities for McCausland, who can browse records for the first time in decades (albeit with a few hiccups) and read a menu without the help of his fellow diners. From McCausland’s standpoint, driverless cars are another wonder. For the first time in decades, he sits in a vehicle alone, beaming from ear to ear as he makes a journey without relying on another person. Even if you’ve balked at social media videos of the (slightly terrifying) Waymo driverless cars, McCausland’s enthusiasm is infectious.
As he tests out bionic exoskeleton legs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it becomes clear that inventions which once seemed the preserve of sci-fi movies are closer to being reality than we think. “I would love this to be matched up with something that allows me to navigate myself and solve a problem I have, which is getting around and independence,” McCausland says. “I think there’s always something to be said for matching technologies to help people solve problems.”
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McCausland wearing exoskeleton boots in his new documentary (CREDIT LINE:BBC/Open Mike Productions)
At the futuristic Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek lab, the comedian meets a team working on technology that could one day be used to restore people’s sight. “I came into this thinking that was the far future, but it’s not as far as we thought, is it?” he says. “It’s kind of just around the corner.”
McCausland is too nice to directly call out AI skeptics, but by sharing how the technology is changing his life – and will continue to do so – he firmly lets us know we’ve been wrong all along.
‘Seeing into the Future’ airs on BBC Two at 8pm on Sunday 23 November