Current:Home > Contact-usWhat will AI mean for the popular app Be My Eyes?-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
What will AI mean for the popular app Be My Eyes?
View Date:2024-12-23 18:19:03
Brian Fischler is blind. He can tell whether it's light or dark outside, but that's about it.
"I grew up sighted like everybody, and I was diagnosed at 13 with retinitis pigmentosa," Fischler says. "And for me, the lights went out about 2009."
Fischler, a New York-based standup comedian and podcaster, has used the app Be My Eyes since it first came out eight years ago.
It relies on sighted volunteers to do tasks like describe holiday cards sent in the mail, or tell you whether that can in your cupboard is coconut milk or chicken soup.
Or, in Fischler's case, to find an address in New York. "Here in New York City, you have a lot of businesses right on top of each other," Fischler says. "My guide dog can get me close to where I want to go, but he doesn't necessarily know what door I want to go to, especially if it's my first time going to a business."
The eyes of Be My Eyes? They come from the site's more than 6 million volunteers.
One of them is Steven Ellis of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Because he has visually impaired family members, he learned about the challenges of getting through life without the use of all five senses. When he signed up to volunteer for the app, Ellis connected with a user who couldn't connect his TV. The only way to tell the wires apart was by differentiating them by color, and he couldn't see.
Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a Danish furniture craftsman, created the app after he got tired of calling his friends and family to ask for help identifying things. (Wiberg is visually impaired.) He spent a couple years developing it, and the app launched in 2015.
But eight years later, there's a twist. As artificial intelligence, or AI, becomes more accessible, app creators are experimenting with an AI version using tech as well as human volunteers. Be My Eyes CEO Mike Buckley says the argument for AI is that it can do things people cannot.
"What if the AI ingested every service manual of every consumer product ever?," says Buckley. "And so you could tap into the AI and say, 'How do I hook up my Sony stereo?'" Furthermore, Buckley says, "we took a picture of our refrigerator and it not only told us what all the ingredients were but it told us what we could make for dinner."
But, he insists that AI won't completely replace the volunteers who make Be My Eyes so popular.
"I hope it ends up being 50-50 because I do think that there is going to be a desire for continued human connection," Buckley says. "There's some volunteer feedback we've gotten [that] when they actually get a call they talk about it as the best day of their week."
Brian Fischler, the stand-up comedian, is among a handful of users given early access to the AI portion of Be My Eyes. That part of the app is set to launch in a few months. So far, Fischler is impressed by its speed.
"It goes so above and beyond," he says. "It scanned the entire menu. But then I was able to ask follow up questions. I was in the mood for chicken and I was able to say, 'Just read me the chicken dishes.'"
But Fischler considers the AI portion to be a good complement to the app's human volunteers, rather than a replacement of them.
"I was a Terminator 2 kind of a guy where the machines rose up and they weren't exactly lovely and cuddly and helping us," Fischler says, referring to the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. "So to have a tool like this which is going to be so valuable to so many millions of people around the world, and the fact that it's free is really, absolutely spectacular."
This story was edited for digital by Miranda Kennedy. Barry Gordemer edited the audio version.
veryGood! (8591)
Related
- How Alex Jones’ Infowars wound up in the hands of The Onion
- Ex-CIA officer gets 30 years in prison for drugging, sexually abusing dozens of women
- California law cracking down on election deepfakes by AI to be tested
- High School Musical’s Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens' Relationship Ups and Downs Unpacked in Upcoming Book
- Keke Palmer Says Ryan Murphy “Ripped” Into Her Over Scream Queens Schedule
- No charges will be pursued in shooting that killed 2 after Detroit Lions game
- Mission specialist for Titan sub owner to testify before Coast Guard
- Jordan Love injury update: Is Packers QB playing Week 3 vs. Titans?
- Hurricane-damaged Tropicana Field can be fixed for about $55M in time for 2026 season, per report
- High School Musical’s Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens' Relationship Ups and Downs Unpacked in Upcoming Book
Ranking
- Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani wins reelection to Arizona US House seat
- A news site that covers Haitian-Americans is facing harassment over its post-debate coverage of Ohio
- 'STOP!' Meet the humble heroes keeping kids safe every school day
- Pharrell Williams slammed as 'out of touch' after saying he doesn't 'do politics'
- Horoscopes Today, November 13, 2024
- Powerball winning numbers for September 18: Jackpot rises to $176 million
- Families of Americans detained in China share their pain and urge US to get them home
- Travis Kelce’s Jaw-Droppingly Luxe Birthday Gift to Patrick Mahomes Revealed
Recommendation
-
Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight odds will shift the longer the heavyweight bout goes
-
Horoscopes Today, September 18, 2024
-
MLS playoff clinching scenarios: LAFC, Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake can secure berths
-
This $9 Primer & Mascara Have People Asking If I’m Wearing Fake Lashes
-
Atlanta man dies in shootout after police chase that also kills police dog
-
Asteroid to orbit Earth as 'mini-moon' for nearly 2 months: When you can see it
-
80-year-old man found dead after driving around roadblock into high water
-
Connecticut landscaper dies after tree tumbled in an 'unintended direction' on top of him