Facebook accessibility: AI is writing photo captions for blind users (Wired UK)

The AI is part of the social network's alternative text project (alt text for short) and will be used to add captions to any photos posted on News Feeds. Facebook counts 39 million blind and 246 million visually impaired users who, if they are using iOS with a screen reader, will hear a list of items a photograph may contain as they swipe past them, the company announced in a blog post. Previously they would hear the word'photo' but not be receive a description of it. The team behind the code have been working on it for more than ten months. A computer vision platform allows a visual recognition engine to scan images and understand what is in them, from objects to scenes and even specific places.