{"id":149912,"date":"2025-11-20T09:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/149912\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T09:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:55:11","slug":"chris-mccauslands-fascinating-blindness-documentary-challenges-even-the-most-ardent-ai-skeptics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/149912\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris McCausland\u2019s fascinating blindness documentary challenges even the most ardent AI skeptics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

The advent of artificial intelligence, and the pace it\u2019s advancing at, is something everyone has an opinion on. For many of us, every new development marks one step closer to a Black Mirror-esque future, where technology has stolen our jobs and humans no longer think for themselves. But in his new BBC Two documentary Seeing into the Future, Chris McCausland<\/a> tables a defence that forces even the most stubborn AI<\/a> skeptics to rethink their stance. <\/p>\n

The comedian \u2013 who began to lose his eyesight in his late teens and has been completely blind since he was around 25 years old \u2013 starts by explaining how the introduction of the iPhone\u2019s built-in, screen-reading \u201cVoiceover\u201d feature has already proved to be a game-changer for him. Developments in AI are progressing things even further and the documentary sees McCausland explore both technology that\u2019s readily available and learn more about the genuinely mind-blowing updates that could come. <\/p>\n

He shows us how it\u2019s changed one task: getting dressed. \u201cUnless you can feel something is a specific item of clothing you often have to ask people what it looks like, or you have to mark them in some way,\u201d McCausland explains. \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lifetime cutting labels so I know the one with a cut-off label at an angle is the blue one. With AI, you can just have it open and ask it.\u201d <\/p>\n

On a visit to Meta\u2019s sprawling San Francisco HQ, he tests out their AI glasses. Maligned by many as unnerving and unnecessary, the high-tech specs open up new possibilities for McCausland, who can browse records for the first time in decades (albeit with a few hiccups) and read a menu without the help of his fellow diners. From McCausland\u2019s standpoint, driverless cars are another wonder. For the first time in decades, he sits in a vehicle alone, beaming from ear to ear as he makes a journey without relying on another person. Even if you\u2019ve balked at social media videos of the (slightly terrifying) Waymo driverless cars, McCausland\u2019s enthusiasm is infectious. <\/p>\n

As he tests out bionic exoskeleton legs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it becomes clear that inventions which once seemed the preserve of sci-fi movies are closer to being reality than we think. \u201cI would love this to be matched up with something that allows me to navigate myself and solve a problem I have, which is getting around and independence,\u201d McCausland says. \u201cI think there\u2019s always something to be said for matching technologies to help people solve problems.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"McCausland<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

McCausland wearing exoskeleton boots in his new documentary (CREDIT LINE:BBC\/Open Mike Productions)<\/p>\n

At the futuristic Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek lab, the comedian meets a team working on technology that could one day be used to restore people\u2019s sight. \u201cI came into this thinking that was the far future, but it\u2019s not as far as we thought, is it?\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of just around the corner.\u201d <\/p>\n

McCausland is too nice to directly call out AI skeptics, but by sharing how the technology is changing his life \u2013 and will continue to do so \u2013 he firmly lets us know we\u2019ve been wrong all along.<\/p>\n

\u2018Seeing into the Future\u2019 airs on BBC Two at 8pm on Sunday 23 November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-149912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}