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   Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️ (hannah@social.alt-text.org)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 19:40:16 JST Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

   @mozilla I've been working on tools around issues like this for years, including a large amount of communication with folks who depend on alt text. Should this technology be available to those writing alt text, rather than just voluntarily to screen reader users, it will be immensely harmful to the accessibility of social media everywhere. Please do not do this. I'm happy to dive into why but please do not make it easy for people posting images to use this AI generation.
   - Founder, Alt-Text.org

   • Embed this notice
     Sick Sun (sun@shitposter.world)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 19:40:01 JST Sick Sun

     in reply to

     • 0x5DA
     @hannah @0x5DA @mozilla > said user needs to know that that's the source of said description.
     
     this is a browser feature that the end user turns on or off themselves so yes they do know that. it's not being done by the publisher.
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     0x5DA (0x5da@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 19:40:08 JST 0x5DA

     in reply to

     @hannah @mozilla
     hm, i see. and i guesss you don't think is a training thing..

     is it worse than _no_ alt text?
     a human will have a superior understanding of context, and should be strongly preferred -but many people don't all the same, and i'm doubtful that will change. this seems (from an outside perspective) to be a reasonable, if unsatisfying, solution.

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     Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️ (hannah@social.alt-text.org)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 19:40:08 JST Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • 0x5DA

     @0x5DA @mozilla It can be useful for a person using a screen reader to have access to an AI description, but crucial there is that said user needs to know that that's the source of said description. There are repeated patterns of those who feel pressured to include descriptions but don't actually care about accessibility doing the absolute minimum, manifesting here as using the direct AI output without examination or editing.

     So yes, a lack of inline alt text is better than AI gen inline.

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     Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️ (hannah@social.alt-text.org)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 19:40:14 JST Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • 0x5DA

     @0x5DA @mozilla I don't have capacity in this moment for the full depth, but it's a bit more complex. Writing alt text that's actually equalizing of access, especially on social media, requires knowledge of multiple layers of context in which an image appears. Similar to other AI types, AI description works impressively *sometimes* but falls down hard on many types of image commonly appearing on SM, often in ways not obviously bad to those writing alt text.

     An example: https://bsky.app/profile/hannah.the-void.social/post/3ktzlwoqdkc2h

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     0x5DA (0x5da@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 19:40:15 JST 0x5DA

     in reply to

     @hannah @mozilla
     i'm not mozilla, but i am interested to know more. because you worry AI alt-text would be too low quality, and be detrimental?

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     Sick Sun (sun@shitposter.world)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 23:13:58 JST Sick Sun

     in reply to

     • 0x5DA
     @hannah @0x5DA @mozilla thank you for your reply, I agree with you that this is not desirable unless it's somehow marked, and still could discourage a good attempt at making alt text. I apologize.
   • Embed this notice
     Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️ (hannah@social.alt-text.org)'s status on Thursday, 06-Jun-2024 23:14:02 JST Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Sick Sun
     • 0x5DA

     @sun @0x5DA @mozilla That is true of the first steps here, however if you read the linked blog post you will find that extending easy use to publishers is a goal.

   • Embed this notice
     Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️ (hannah@social.alt-text.org)'s status on Friday, 07-Jun-2024 02:16:25 JST Hannah Kolbeck 🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Sick Sun
     • 0x5DA

     @sun @0x5DA @mozilla I misunderstood their plans, and have written a partial retraction: https://social.alt-text.org/@hannah/112570794161740101

     Sick Sun likes this.