All about Artificial Intelligence
I’ve already written here at Olhar Digital that one of the main functions of technology is to improve people’s lives. All people’s lives. We live in bubbles and often forget about those who aren’t inside them – or who are different in some way.
You may have read in several places that 2024 would be the year of Artificial Intelligence. And, in fact, the launches so far confirm this path. The full potential of AI could make a robot walk without bumping into things. Or make a car drive itself perfectly. Or even increase the performance of a battery.
What few people talk about – or even remember – is that AI can also improve the lives of people with disabilities. And this is already happening outside of Brazil.
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An initiative called Be My Eyes has created a free app to help people who are blind or have limited vision.
The idea was born in Denmark in 2012 and consists of the following: connecting visually impaired people to volunteers, who receive photos, videos or live calls and have to describe what they are seeing to the blind people.
Despite being commendable, the project has always had an obstacle: depending on volunteers from the other side – and that’s where the problem of time, time zone, language, among other things, comes in.
And that’s where Artificial Intelligence can come in to solve the problem.
Danish app has been helping people with disabilities since 2012 – Image: Disclosure/Be My Eyes In February, Be My Eyes entered into a partnership with OpenAI to start using the GPT-4 software in a beta version. And the tests so far have been very successful. If before it was necessary to connect the person with disabilities to a volunteer, now the user can talk to a robot, a chatbot, at any time. The blind person, for example, can point the camera on their cell phone at a carton of milk and ask if it is expired. Or even film an outfit in a store and ask if the colors match the outfit they are wearing. Or even film ducks diving into a lake and ask the AI what is happening at that moment. And the robot responds, as shown in the following video:
As you can see, technology even helped the person call a taxi. The app told the user the exact time he needed to raise his arm to stop the car.
The next steps
Be My Eyes is just one example of what’s being done. Google, for example, has an app called “Lookout,” which is also designed to help visually impaired users.
While not abundant, tools designed to help people with disabilities or the elderly do exist.
For the deaf, an app helps convert speech into text. For people with reduced mobility, scientists develop AI-powered exoskeletons. And so on.
The big question now is money. Ensuring that AI systems continue to serve all types of users requires ongoing investment. And we’re talking about an investment that sometimes doesn’t guarantee any financial return.
But life shouldn’t be just about that, right? Just like technology, life can also be about helping other people, especially those who need it most.
The information is from CNN International.
