When we talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI), the conversation is often tainted by a sense of trepidation. The technology is undeniably powerful, and for decades humanity has been fascinated by its potential in both destructive and constructive visions of the future. Ultimately, the likelihood is that the reality will be comparatively muted, a world in which people become accustomed to machine assistance but are unlikely to be overwhelmed by an army of sentient robots fuelled by murderous indignation.
Similarly, not all incarnations of AI will be co-opted by big business to help sell products; there will be genuinely positive applications. One of the tech industry’s major issues is that it rarely caters for disabled users. Most tech is fundamentally audiovisual, meaning those with impairments are often left using disappointingly inadequate accessibility features. The development of AI could, and in many ways already is, easing this problem. Intelligent automation can bring previously impossible levels of accessibility to otherwise problematic technologies.
YouTube, for example, is not subject to the same rules as TV broadcasters, and therefore is not obligated by the FCC to include captions on its videos to aid deaf viewers. Indeed, manually creating subtitles for its endless catalogue of videos given that 300 hours are uploaded every minute, simply wouldn’t be possible. Instead, the company has used speech-to-text software since 2009, tech that can detect speech to a relatively high degree of accuracy. Earlier this year, though, YouTube rolled out algorithms that can detect applause, music, laughter, and other non-verbal sounds for captioning, transforming the experience of watching subtitled YouTube videos into something altogether more rounded. ‘Machine learning is giving people like me that need accommodation in some situations the same independence as others,’ says Liat Kaver, a product manager at YouTube who is deaf.
Visual impairment can be a major restricting factor for social media users, too. Voiceover features on mobile devices and laptops allow users to hear the text on any given web page, but on mediums dominated by picture and video content, the tech currently falls short. In April this year, Facebook rolled out its Artificial Intelligence software that can describe photos to blind users. Though the technology is currently in its infancy, it can identify different objects, determine whether those pictured are smiling, and even whether or not a picture is a selfie.
Ultimately, it’s about ensuring that no one is excluded from enjoying tools like YouTube and Facebook on the basis of a lack of accessibility.
