{"id":396556,"date":"2026-01-29T08:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/396556\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T08:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:37:23","slug":"ai-mirrors-are-changing-the-way-blind-people-see-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/396556\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;AI mirrors&#8217; are changing the way blind people see themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769675842_495_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/p0mx9l8j.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Getty Images A growing number of blind people are turning to AI to help them navigate the world around them (Credit: Getty Images)\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Getty ImagesA growing number of blind people are turning to AI to help them navigate the world around them (Credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;But this can also be used in a negative way, because maybe you don&#8217;t like something about yourself, and you tell the AI that you&#8217;re not sure about a feature of your body. Maybe your hair is a little messy and you mention it in your request. While it may tell you, &#8216;Oh, it&#8217;s beautiful,&#8217; it may also tell you, &#8216;You&#8217;re right, here&#8217;s how you can change it,'&#8221; Edwards adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">But when technology acts as our eyes, there is a risk of it describing something that doesn&#8217;t exist at all. Hallucinations \u2013 where AI models pass off inaccurate or false information as true \u2013 are one of the biggest problems with the technology. &#8220;At first, the descriptions were very good, but we noticed that many of them were inaccurate and changed important details, or invented information when what was in the image didn&#8217;t seem to be enough,&#8221; explains Mahadevan. &#8220;But the technology is improving by leaps and bounds, and these errors are becoming less and less common.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">But it is important to note that AI isn&#8217;t right all the time, despite Envision&#8217;s optimism. When Joaqu\u00edn Valentinuzzi, a 20-year-old blind man, decided to use artificial intelligence to evaluate himself by choosing the perfect photos for a dating app profile, he found that the information returned by the AI sometimes bore little resemblance to reality. &#8220;Sometimes it changed my hair colour or described my expressions incorrectly, telling me I had a neutral expression when I was actually smiling,&#8221; he says. &#8220;This kind of thing can make you feel insecure, especially if, as we are encouraged to do, we trust these tools and use them as a way to gain self-knowledge and try and keep up with the way our bodies look.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">More like this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">\u2022\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/bbc.com\/future\/article\/20190311-how-social-media-affects-body-image\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The complicated truth about social media and body image<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\"\/>\u2022\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20150622-the-myth-of-universal-beauty\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The myth of universal beauty<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\"\/>\u2022\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/bbc.com\/future\/article\/20210916-the-school-that-change-a-city-into-a-place-for-the-blind\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The school that created a city for the blind<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty ImagesA growing number of blind people are turning to AI to help them navigate the world around&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-396556","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-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}