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Jesper Holten was born three months prematurely, which caused damage to his retina leading to visual impairment. He’s now completely blind.
When he’s alone and needs help in a hurry, he pulls out his smartphone, and uses a mobile app called Be My Eyes, which connects blind or visually impaired people with sighted volunteers via video call.
“I use it on a fairly regular basis, maybe once or twice a week,” he says.
“It tends to be in daily situations like when I’m cooking food and want to have a look at tins, especially, at tins and cans with foodstuff can be very hard to ascertain what’s in it.”
Now, Be My Eyes’ mobile app has had an AI-powered upgrade, thanks to OpenAI’s new ChatGPT image-to-text generator.
Users can send photos via the app to an AI-powered “Virtual Volunteer,” which provides almost instantaneous identification.
They can even add follow-up questions, such as “How long should I cook this pasta?”
If a user sends a picture of the inside of their refrigerator, the Virtual Volunteer can identify what’s in it and also suggest what can be prepared with those ingredients.
“I see a potential for people to have more independence,” says Holten, who’s been testing an early version of the Virtual Volunteer since March this year.
“For some people, it can even be difficult to ask other people for help, but if you ask a machine, it’s a machine, so it’s there to serve you.”
Be My Eyes was launched in 2015 and now claims almost half a million blind and low-vision users, plus 6.4 million sighted volunteers. The app can provide assistance in around 180 different languages.
Founder Hans Jørgen Wiberg – who is visually impaired himself – came up with the idea in 2012, when he was trying to find a way to get visual assistance when alone.
Jørgen Wiberg says they were approached by OpenAI in early February to help launch the startup’s new image-to-text generator.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.