Alt Text Adventures: AI vs. Human Descriptions

Maybe put AI descriptions with human descriptions and see what happens basically what I’m trying to say is, maybe get AI to describe it, and get a human to verify whether the descriptions that AI gives is valid. So then you have the best of both worlds

Yeah, if it's unimportant, fun stuff, definitely AI. if it's more serious things, I'd cross-verify the AI-generated description with somebody. An alternative strategy for serious stuff is to use 2 different AI models to generate descriptions, and if there's factual difference, depend on humans. Having said that, I totally enjoy the AI-generated rich descriptions.

I agree with what?Gokul Said.

I haven’t really gotten around to exploring other ai image describers, but from what I can tell with be my eyes on iOS and windows, bmai AI description is brilliant

I'm only aware of coming across AI generated alt text on Facebook, but maybe I'm just not aware. It ranges from substandard to less than useless compared to the text posted here as examples of AI or LLM descriptions. My iPhone generates better descriptions through VO. I don't always trust what people think they see in pictures. I very much remember, when I could see, not always understanding what I saw in a picture because of a weird angle or some kind of lighting issue, like the old Halloween trick of shining a flashlight upward across your face, or even looking at a projector slide of someone that was loaded backward, looking at yourself in a reversing mirror and finding out how everyone else actually sees the part in your hair on the left instead of the right...
A while back, someone posted a video of two AI devices discussing a room. Just to find out what would happen, I would like to see a demonstration of two AI arguing over which description is best or most correct, or closes to what a human would describe.

I love the fact that I can capture an image and have it independently described, and agree that it is often very rich and detailed. However, I prefer human alt text. Firstly, it's accurate, but secondly, that richness you mention from AI can feel fake and overblown after a while because it uses the same kind of sense and concept words in its description. I also don't appreciate that it tells me how to interpret the image. In your logo, for example, it says the circuit boards signify advanced technology. But I might have a different thought. I might, perhaps, think of it as representing the idea of human and technological coming together, or as something to do with computer vision, specifically. This is not to say I want my alt text to be free of emotion or opinion--indeed one of my favorite things about human written alt text is that it can be so very creative and evocative in ways that AI is not, but I do notice.

Related to human alt text being better, too, is that it has an enhanced creativity if people bother. AI will always, like I said before, use the same types of words, the same type of tone, when perhaps the picture might have a different tone, sometimes funny, sometimes poetical or thoughtful. Look at enough AI descriptions and you will start to notice how each reads exactly alike.

So do I think AI alt text is helpful? Yes! Do I use it when I need something described, or someone was very brief, also yes! But do I think it's better than human written--absolutely not, never, no way no how. Between the creativity of humans and the qquestionable accuracy I will continue to fill my feeds with people who write alt text because it makes me smile.

Human descriptions can also be subject to bad intentions, trolling and whatnot, not to mention willingness to put alt text there in the first place. Human descriptions, assuming the human wants to be helpful and honest, can be very accurate but bland in some cases, and let's not forget that even the most honest humans can make mistakes. Indeed, AI is programmed by mistake makers, so there is that LOL. There always seem to be some drawback one way or another. When in doubt, verify, then verify the verification.

There was a discussion on Double Tap about this exact thing. Personally I think alt text on images is helpful, then I go to AI if I want more. I see alt text as replacing the iOS image description. It's not great but it is enough to help me know whether to bother or not.

Having said that there are places where getting AI descriptions is tricky. For example, Facebook seems to have no option to share to a different app. So I can save the image then load it again or I can screenshot or whatever but frankly I'm too lazy and not desperate enough to put every single Facebook image into AI on the off chance it's interesting.

One disadvantage of alt text is that it is only available at source. So if I save a photo locally then I lose the alt text.

One thing that I've noticed recently. I'm sure in the Photos app on the iPhone it used to give me a simple description of the photo as I was browsing through. But now I don't. Image descriptions is still enabled. Did I imagine this feature worked here or has it just broken?

iOS does give a description of each photo in the Photos app for me. What has probably happened on your phone is after some update or another, the global settings buried deep within Settings>Accessibility>VoiceOver>VoiceOver Recognition have all been switched to off. You need to turn some of the switches back on to get it to work again, whether or not you have the settings in your rotor set to describe images.. At least that is what happened to me a while back.
* Comments about Facebook's "May be an image of text," alt text edited out... for my own sanity.

Thanks - I had double-checked all those settings and turned VoiceOver on and off, and used the quadruple 2 finger menu to ensure image descriptions were on, but still nothing.

However I am slightly ashamed to say that rebooting my phone has fixed it. I've watched enough episodes of the IT Crowd to have known to try that one already.

And this can only be a good thing! When humans fail or don't give enough detail, we have another place to go, and this generally improves accessibility. I, too, am glad for this discussion--some interesting thoughts to ponder for sure!

Also, humans are most definitely subjective sometimes--and they can be some of my favorite kinds of alt text because you can really feel what the person saw when they described it. However even in those cases it often doesn't directly say what something is representing as an absolute fact the way AI tends to. This is what I was talking about earlier regarding objectivity.

Oh, sorry. I left that part out. It does require a restart of the phone to make those changes. It probably also downloaded a little code when you turned those options on, for anyone else going through this process.
The native, onboard image describer and text detector for iOS aren't too bad.

I can definitely tell it's AI, but it's welldone!

I've not posted this about three or four times because I'm not an expert, short-description writer, or anything else, for that matter. A couple of things seem... odd to me. ""The heart is perfectly formed with decorative swirls."" I don't quite understand the need to say the heart is "perfectly formed, perfectly," being the word that sticks out somehow.
Next, "the dramatic sky filled with puffy clouds" is somewhat visually mind jarring to me for some reason. It seems to be from using the word "dramatic" with "puffy." Streaks of clouds in those colors might be dramatic, but puffy is dreamy and sleepy to me.
I wouldn't mind coming across alt text like that, and it gets the point of the picture across. There were just a few small things that seemed off about it, and I tried to figure out what they were.
* Reading it again, it's the word "dramatic" that doesn't fit, because it does later say it is dreamy.

I imagine this is what one would consider "an elaborate description". There is nothing wrong with it. It is not a good thing or a bad thing, think of it as a description from someone with a sense of visual art.

Regarding the description of the heart, I take it to mean that the lines and contours are symetrical.

Hope this helps. 😎

Ya, the beach in your head isn't the beach in my head. Mine has palm trees and screechy seagulls.
Like I said, the word "dramatic" seemed to stick out from things like dreamy and serene. But at this point, I've read the description so many times it just is what it is.