this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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Mozilla Firefox new alt-text generator powered by "fully private on-device AI model" (hacks.mozilla.org)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by frogman@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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New accessibility feature coming to Firefox, an "AI powered" alt-text generator.

"Starting in Firefox 130, we will automatically generate an alt text and let the user validate it. So every time an image is added, we get an array of pixels we pass to the ML engine and a few seconds after, we get a string corresponding to a description of this image (see the code).

...

Our alt text generator is far from perfect, but we want to take an iterative approach and improve it in the open.

...

We are currently working on improving the image-to-text datasets and model with what we’ve described in this blog post..."

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[–] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 months ago (7 children)

Babe another pointless Al just dropped

[–] InfiniWheel@lemmy.one 40 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is actually one of the few cases where it makes sense. Its for alt-text for people who browse with TTS

[–] rho50@lemmy.nz 17 points 5 months ago

Yeah, this is actually a pretty great application for AI. It's local, privacy-preserving and genuinely useful for an underserved demographic.

One of the most wholesome and actually useful applications for LLMs/CLIP that I've seen.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 29 points 5 months ago

"I don't need Alt text so it must be useless"

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 5 months ago (1 children)

it's not pointless; it's amazing for accessibility, especially in pdfs.

[–] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well I do agree it'll be useful for people who need it, but for most people it's pretty pointless and I hope at least they don't enable it by default just like Windoze sticky key because ai use a lot of system resources for a little benefits especially with self hosted ai

[–] frogman@beehaw.org 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

beehaw is a safe-space, we shouldnt villify the experiences/needs of people who need alt-text. this could be game changing for people who need it.

[–] bl4kers@beehaw.org 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Alternatively, it could be very frustrating for people who need it. Computer-generated translations are often very bad compared to human ones, and image recognition adds another layer of complexity that will very likely lack nuance. It could create a false sense of accessibility with bad alt-text, and could make it more difficult to spot real alt-text if it isn't being tagged or labeled as AI generated

[–] frogman@beehaw.org 3 points 5 months ago

i don't think we disagree in a vacuum but bringing that up in the context of this particular thread is probably unhelpful

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 19 points 5 months ago

Its for blind people, it let's them know what is in images using a screen reader, just because it doesn't apply to you doesn't mean it's useless

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 12 points 5 months ago

Think AI is pointless when it doesn't apply to you?

[–] Zworf@beehaw.org 2 points 5 months ago

If you had a visual disability you would certainly think otherwise.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 1 points 5 months ago

Tell me you don't add alt text to your posts without telling me :p