Jakob Rosin, a prominent member of Estonia’s blind community, recalled browsing a sports club website with the help of audio software that reads out a description of the text and images shown on a screen.
Rosin listened to the screen reader, a tool to help him go through an online list of upcoming events at the club. However, he was confused when the audio described a toilet as it went through the schedule. He discovered later that the image of bullet points used for the list had prompted the mistake.
He told the club, which had installed AI-driven software on its website that automatically creates image descriptions for screen readers, about the slip. The club had “no idea” the software, set up with no manual intervention, was that unreliable, Rosin said.
The misleading readout, however, is not unusual and exposes weaknesses in the AI-generated software that many believe still needs fine-tuning.
