Gregory's Server@RoyReed @jessamyn Simultaneously far better than nothing, and a threat to human-created alt text. AI descriptions tend to use very normcore, Halmark-esque language. Every photo with a puppy is heartwarming, every photo with a couch is cozy. I fear that institutions will adopt AI descriptions as a perceived time-saver, and the gains we’ve made in human alt text literacy will be wiped out.
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3 comments
@RoyReed @jessamyn It’s a conundrum. Most institutions and platforms have so much legacy content that needs alt text, and accessibility teams aren’t resourced enough to do it in house. I’ve heard of crowd-volunteering efforts, which seems like a good thing, and there are also companies like Scribely that will write alt text as a B2B service. At a minimum, a human in the loop is necessary to make sure misleading or plain wrong description doesn’t get published. @ChanceyFleet @jessamyn Yes, I agree about the sentimentality of some of the suggestions. I do edit what AI proposes, but I do find it a useful starting point. |
@ChanceyFleet @RoyReed I, too, am concerned about this iterative effect (i.e. models getting trained on themselves) so we're definitely in favor (I am anyway) of making sure there are human checks.
I mean I don't get to build any of this, but I have some oversight into how things might be built. I think our concern is: given that we have some institutions which have no image descriptions, what is the best way to get more description in there?
I do take all of your points, they are good ones.