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Tech
Nearing the 10-year anniversary of losing her eyesight, Lucy Edwards(Opens in a new tab) is reclaiming countless visual experiences…with the help of artificial intelligence.
As a partner with visual assistant mobile app Be My Eyes(Opens in a new tab), Edwards is testing the limits of the latest accessibility revelation, the Be My Eyes Virtual Volunteer(Opens in a new tab). The AI-driven tool acts as tour guide, food blogger, personal assistant — you name it — ushering in a new form of complex, human-mimicking assistance using OpenAI’s hyper-realistic AI language model. With a single app, Edwards’ whole world is expanding, on her own terms.
So far, she’s used it to help her read fashion catalogs(Opens in a new tab), translate ingredients from Chinese to English and search the web for recipes(Opens in a new tab), write alt text for images within her own photo library(Opens in a new tab), and help her read restaurant menus(Opens in a new tab). Edwards has also demonstrated the potential of using the Virtual Volunteer as a personal trainer(Opens in a new tab) and as a guide to navigating the London Tube(Opens in a new tab).
Edwards herself is a content creator(Opens in a new [...]