Facebook is Using AI to Describe Photos to Blind Users

Artificial intelligence is meant to be taking over the world, but along the way, it seems to be helping out humans from time to time. Today's example: Facebook is using its artificial intelligence network to describe photos to the blind. If your Facebook feed is anything like mine, the vast majority of my friends' posts are either photos or links. Without being able to see photos, blind users are being left out of a huge chunk of the social interaction happening on Facebook. The company's answer is automatic alternative text: a neural network analyses photos, and if it's at least 80 percent confident it understands what's going on, the AI will describe the photo.