OpenAI has introduced the world to its latest powerful AI model, GPT-4, and refreshingly the first thing they set the new system to was helping people with visual impairments. Be My Eyes, which lets blind and low vision folks ask sighted people to describe what their phone sees, is getting a ‘virtual volunteer’ that offers AI-powered help at any time.
We’ve written about Be My Eyes plenty of times since it was started in 2015, and of course the rise of computer vision and other tools has figured prominently in its story of helping the visually impaired more easily navigate everyday life. But the app itself can only do so much, and a core feature was always being able to get a helping hand from a volunteer, who could look through your phone’s camera view and give detai...
