cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45437770
I've been thinking a lot about the Fediverse ALT issue.
Some people are annoyed by posts without Alttext, & others get reminded¹ to add it.
The core question is: How can we improve accessibility?
Proposal: ☑️ Add a user filter to hide media posts without AltTag ☑️ Reduced engagement on hidden posts would encourage adding Alt text ☑️ People who need accessibility wouldn't have to encounter unlabeled media
If this gets traction, I'll open a Mastodon GitHub issue (maybe on others too?).
I thought we were anti AI...?
Take a look at how blind people can use phones to learn what's around them, and tell me afterwards that you're still against AI.
It's a polarised topic but doesn't need to be, IMO - I still see it as a tool, albeit a powerful one with lots of risks and drawbacks, but the cats out of the bag at this point so we may as well roll with it and make the most of the applications for good. Like with many other massive, rapid technical advancements of the past.
AI is quite unlike other "rapid technical advancements of the past" in that sense. It's so damaging to people, society and environment that there is currently no possibility that any use you make of it, "well-intentioned" or not, can improve things. Any "we might as well use it" s little more than joining the oppression.
Imagine thinking that LLMs are so toxic that you'd think we're splitting the atom, a technology so polarizing that it became a security issue. Any yet, nuclear power is an incredible scientific achievement, and something we still use all over the place. But, it's also a technology that we still aren't fully utilizing 80 years later, because of fearmongers like you taking away any sense of nuance in the conversation, and letting blind absolutism govern your opinions.