Facebook AI Describes Photos To Blind Users

Facebook has detailed an ongoing effort with its artificial intelligence that enables its software to describe photographs to blind users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a link to the video describing the technology on his own Facebook account yesterday, briefly discussing the feature and Facebook's work. He said the video inspired him, and that, "Our AI can now look at a photo, figure out what's in it and help explain it to you."

Facebook has worked extensively on developing its artificial intelligence, which enables the platform to perform all sorts of things you may not be aware of — finding you face in others' photos, for example, and other things the social network still has in the development pipeline.

In this case, the technology enables visually impaired and blind users to better enjoy the service by describing photos shared by friends. A picture of one's baby or cat, for example, would be explained as containing either of those things.

As you can see in the video, the technology is still being worked on — Zuckerberg says, "We're still early with this technology, and you can already start to imagine how helpful it will be in the future."

SOURCE: Facebook