Firefox is adding on-device AI alt text for images.
Generally assistive technology is of course a good thing, however:
- How accurate is it?
- How accurate can it even be if it doesn’t know the intentions of the poster? (The exact same image can be illustrative to diametrically opposite opinions.)
- Where does the training data come from?
- Will it discourage authors from adding alt text?
- Is there telemetry that could be used to invade privacy? What if that data gets sold or stolen?