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?).
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.
I replied to you with an example of AI recognizing things that the phone camera sees, to tell the blind user about them. That reply was before this comment of yours. I myself am also a person using auto-generated subtitles on YouTube, because my hearing isn't too good, especially for the non-native English language.
Yet you claim that none of these uses improve things. So you see less-able people as unworthy of improvements to their lives. Nice to know, because an opinion stemming from bigotry can be summarily dismissed.
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.