Microsoft Wants AI To Be More Helpful For People Who Are Blind or Use Wheelchairs

People who are blind or who use a wheelchair or who have autism often are early adopters of technology to complete everyday tasks like communicating, reading, and traveling. Artificial intelligence powers many of these services such as voice and object recognition. In many cases, these products are trained on data from able-bodied or neurotypical people. This means that the algorithms may have a limited understanding of body types, communication styles, and facial expressions. Microsoft is working with researchers and advocacy groups to solve this data problem and build data sets that better reflect all types of users and real-world scenarios. From a report: Microsoft put the challenges in context in a post published on Oct. 12 on the company's AI Blog: "If a self-driving car's pedestrian detection algorithms haven't been shown examples of people who use wheelchairs or whose posture or gait is different due to advanced age, for example, they may not correctly identify those people as objects to avoid or estimate how much longer they need to safely cross a street, researchers noted. AI models used in hiring processes that try to read personalities or interpret sentiment from potential job candidates can misread cues and screen out qualified candidates with autism or who emote differently. Algorithms that read handwriting may not be able to cope with examples from people who have Parkinson's disease or tremors. Gesture recognition systems may be confused by people with amputated limbs or different body shapes."

Will the AI hold off update reboots when in drive

[Joe_Dragon]

Will the AI hold off update reboots when in drive mode?

oh, and a flying car

[Tablizer]

Tablizer wants AI to do all his grunt work, fetch beers, and buy him a pony.

Technology makes us more like Octopuses

[jellomizer]

We as humans have a central nervous system, in which our brain controls everything that we do.
Octopuses while have a large brain, it isn't as centralized, as each tentacle has its own nervous system which performs many actions without the brain.
This AI enhancements to people who need help, seems to be running on such a principal.

Re: Technology makes us more like Octopuses

[Guru2Newbie]

So... Microsoft products make us nervous suckers?

All the data

[Z80a]

Sorry, but you being blind or using a wheelchair don't mean you should be exempt from the microsoft data collection.
If anything, we want your next wheelchair or braille screen to be connected to the internet and constantly updated.

Re:

[Shaitan]

It's okay for he blind people they will make sure to provide a highly visible flashing through EULA alert.

Re:

[Z80a]

They can offer an option on braille too, running the whole EULA in 5 seconds on the braille screen to not waste the time of the blind.

I support this concept!

[Shaitan]

AI, implants, and genetic modification to benefit ADHD and autism, dementia, and obesity would provide vital treatment to millions. Though we wouldn't want to 'cure' ADHD and autism since they are arguably enhancement to mental function in many ways, only enhance mental acuity, processing speed, memory, provide on demand context indicators and scene highlighters so nothing is missed due to 'chunking' etc. What would be unethical enhancements for normal people would actually be a medical treatment for those

Re: I support this concept!

[fbobraga]

I think you forget you meds...

Re:

[Shaitan]

In what way is this a troll?

Re:

[oh_my_080980980]

Because you didn't read the article. You post had nothing to do with the point of the article, which was training AI systems. For example a self driving car, whos AI doesn't know what a wheel car is and hence does not know how to stop for a wheel chair in a cross walk.

Re:

[Shaitan]

That isn't trolling, either the post is offtopic or it isn't. Although I think you'll be hard pressed to claim other possible uses for AI surrounding disabilities and medical conditions is offtopic.

Reading the TFA on slashdot, THAT would be trolling.

Please don't

[Scarred Intellect]

...estimate how much longer they need to safely cross a street...

Please, Microsoft. Leave this one alone. You never could estimate when my file was going to be done transferring. 30 seconds, 2 hours, 1.5 hours, 45 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, a few seconds, done (for 5 minutes)...

Re:

[Shaitan]

lol

FDA Approval vs ...

[PPH]

... the Microsoft EULA that states that their products are not suitable for applications affecting life safety. It will be interesting to see who wins this battle.

Translation

[Astramensis]

Ministry of Truth translator:

Microsoft uses AI to exploit the physically challenged and blind.

No, it points to a lack of testing

[oh_my_080980980]

"This really points to the question of how 'normal' is defined by AI systems and who gets to decide that," Kate Crawford, senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research New York and co-founder of the company's Fairness, Accountability, Transparency and Ethics (FATE) in AI group, said in the blog post. https://www.techrepublic.com/a... [techrepublic.com]

This points to incredibly poor testing! Jesus tap dancing christ, how fucking stupid are these people. You rush to get a product out the door because profit but you do

Emote Definition

[jimcooncat]

"who emote differently" is fascinating wording. Oxford dictionary: portray emotion in a theatrical manner. Emoting would make the job interviews less boring.