by Daniel Parker, RDPFS Contributor:
On their weekly YouTube livestream of August 15, 2024, Vision Forward’s Tech Connect discussed various applications and use cases for artificial intelligence (AI) specific to people with vision loss. The discussion centered on OpenAI’s ChatGPT; Microsoft CoPilot; and Google’s Gemini. These are chatbots that allow the user to prompt them to respond in certain ways. As usual, the principal participants in the conversation from Vision Forward were Cory Ballard, Adult Vision Rehabilitation Services Director, and Luke Scriven, Assistive Technology Specialist, along with Jonathan Lindeman, Digital Content Specialist. People in the live chat offered comments, suggestions for conversation topics, and their own experiences. The uses for AI cited by Ballard included drafting a flier for an event, creating an image from a text prompt, developing a lesson plan for a mathematical concept, and writing a blog post based on a YouTube channel. Viewers provided additional examples, such as writing code for a program or script, describing product packaging. and findings things around the user via their phone’s camera. The ethics of AI were a major focus of the discussion. For example, Lindeman noted the difficulty users face in determining whether an article or post is fully or largely AI-generated. Scriven questioned the use by teachers of AI to write up a lesson plan, and also expressed concerns that AI could potentially make certain jobs obsolete. Among his most enlightening points was the idea that while technological advancements are touted as making life easier, in reality they lead to more work and higher productivity expectations for the average worker. Scriven did, however, agree that using AI as a learning or description tool could be very helpful. The entire episode can be watched at “ChatGPT and Microsoft CoPilot: How can they be Used? Should they be used?,” with content at about the 15 minute-mark.
