AI Coordination

Growing up as an avid reader and writer, I have always felt a calling to add touches and elements into and always felt a calling to add touches and elements into the work put out into the world. I've constantly included things from my personal life or just myself in every creative piece I've ever written. For me and many other creatives, the rise of Artificial Intelligence is both exciting and scary. 

Artificial Intelligence (most frequently referred to as AI), according to the Oxford Dictionary, is defined as 'the study and development of computer systems that can copy intelligent human behaviour'. It is an artificial tool designed to help humans in many different and vast capacities. In the 1999 Oscar Winning film The Matrix, Morpheus says, "Throughout human history, we have depended on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony". This quote expresses how humanity has become dependent upon our own creation and how, ironically, we now worry about that same creation taking over.

While the topic of how much AI is taking over is left up for debate, that doesn't mean AI is a tool without its advantages. AI is a human-made system that we regularly come across in everyday life, from auto-correct to digital assistant on our phones; we have created something that we practically can’t live without. One specific positive is that AI has several advantages over a human’s touch, in specific tasks. This is especially true regarding complex patterns, repetitive processes, and large datasets. While we may fear AI and how it has the potential to ‘take over,’ there are many positives and negatives to its rise. In regards to speed and efficiency, AI can process vast amounts of information/data at rates far superior a human. This makes working with it a great asset to complete rapid analysis to further use for decision-making. If a person were left to do this analysis alone it would take much longer to process the same information, especially in large quantities. This is the same regarding complex patterns and relationships with data, image recognition, natural language, and processing, which are all things ultimately easier for AI to spot. Humans can do this; however they sometimes struggle with complex or subtle patterns. The same can be said for repetitive tasks; for humans, there is the disadvantage of “fatigue” leading to less productivity over time. AI can also help to reduce biases, errors and subjectivity that humans often tend to have. One thing AI cannot do, that we can adapt and learn from new data and experiences. However, humans “we” possess cognitive abilities like creativity and intuition, allowing us to adapt in different ways to handle unpredictable situations more effectively than AI is able to in specific contexts. 

We as humans have created this tool to help us to make our lives easier and more efficient. While we may fear that AI is taking over in ways that may appear beyond our control, we can also use AI in many functional ways. I am focusing on how we can do this regarding website building. One of the ways to do this is by using an AI form called ChatGPT to generate content ideas. ChatGPT is a website where people can develop content alongside asking questions and having conversations, the AI is able to understand what is put into it and responds with an almost human-like text. It is constantly evolving through its users' inputs to remain relevant and the best of its kind. Regarding website building, this could allow someone to input a prompt asking ChatGPT for the specific content they’re going for, and it would then respond. 

Another way AI can be helpful in website building is through the capability to analyse images and videos and making sure they are accessible to people who are visually or hearing impaired. The first step to do this through becoming familiar with accessibility standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The WCAG is the outline for making web content accessible for people with disabilities; it is primarily intended for web authoring tool developers, web accessibility evaluation tool developers and web content developers. Keeping products accessible is something that everyone should bear in mind; however, for virtual or private business, it is not a necessity. Ensuring a website is accessible to those with disabilities allows them to feel more comfortable online. It allows your information to reach and be shared with more people. Within the UK, 1.5 million people have a learning disability, 11 million people have a degree of hearing loss and almost 2 million people are classed as partially or fully blind. These needs are often overlooked, meaning these people need help accessing information as quickly as everyone else. With the help of AI as a tool, we can help make a change to this oversight. 

There are three different ways we can work towards making websites accessible. The first way is to adjust contrast and colour. Using AI tools to analyse colour contrast within images makes text more readable for those with low vision. A few websites can be used to do this for free, including OpenCV, a famous open-source computer vision and machine learning library. Another tool to make these adjustments is Google Cloud Vision API (Application Programming Interface), which includes text detection and image properties detection. WebAIM also provides a contrast checker tool on its website. 

You can also use descriptive alt text that conveys different content and functions of images by using AI to generate alt text based on image recognition. This can be done through the free tier of Google Vision API the free tier of Amazon Rekognition, which is similar to Google Cloud Vision API. Alt-text-as-a-Service (AaaS) is an open-source project that provides a REST API for generating alt text from images using machine learning models. 

Another thing that could be done is integrating image recognition APIs, (application programming interface that allows two applications to talk to each other) or libraries that identify people, objects, and scenes within images, automatically generating alt text or suggestions for alt text. This can be done for free through Microsoft Azure Computer Vision API with a free tier, which can recognise and describe objects, faces, and text within images, as well as the free tier of IBM Watson Visual Recognition and the free tier of Clarifai. 

Just like photos, there are many things that can be done to make videos more accessible. The first step to doing this is through adding audio, for those who are blind or have impaired vision. Audio descriptions of visual content within videos can be provided. Using AI analysing video content and through generating descriptions accordingly. Captions can also be generated automatically for videos and synchronised with video content. Free options for doing this are more limited; however, there is the option of a DIY approach and free audio editing software like Audacity, where there are videos, and you can record audio descriptions for the visual content. There's also the option of community resources where volunteers offer audio description services for free. 

There's also a possibility for utilising integration; this can be done by using AI APIs or libraries. To do this you can research and select AI services or libraries that best your image and video analysis needs. While there aren't any websites dedicated to utilising integration for free, there are various platforms to leverage multiple resources, such as GitHub, where you can browse repositories or look at blogs and tutorials written by AI practitioners such as Medium or Towards Data Science. 

One of the best ways to see if the use of AI in a website has succeeded is to monitor user feedback and make necessary improvements to enhance accessibility. 

Things like empathy, creativity, and critical thinking are things AI can never take away from human beings; while AI might be a fantastic tool, there are still things about the human touch that are irreproducible. This means that we should work together with AI to achieve what we want, as it is a great advantage and something we have made and can be used accordingly. For now, let’s leave the fear of AI for the movies.