Facebook using AI to help the blind understand what friends are posting

Facebook is using artificial intelligence (AI) to help users with visual impairment understand what their friends are sharing online. The Menlo Park-based social media company launched "automatic alternative text" on Monday, allowing people who use screen-reading software to receive summaries of what's displayed in Facebook photos. "While visual content provides a fun and expressive way for people to communicate online, consuming and creating it poses challenges for people who are blind or severely visually impaired," the company wrote in a blog post. "With more than 39 million people who are blind, and over 246 million who have a severe visual impairment, many people may feel excluded from the conversation around photos on Facebook. We want to build technology that helps the blind community experience Facebook the same way others enjoy it."