Microsoft to use AI tool Be My Eyes to serve visually impaired customers
Microsoft will partner with Be My Eyes, an app for blind and visually impaired people, to make it easier for visually impaired users to access the company’s customer support, writes Bloomberg.
Be My Eyes was founded in 2015. The app’s principle is to connect visually impaired or blind people with sighted volunteers who can help them with certain tasks.
The startup also has an artificial intelligence tool called Be My AI, which uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 to create a description of a photo that a person has taken, such as a label or product in a store.
Now Be My Eyes has announced the integration of Be My AI technology into Microsoft’s Disability Answer Desk, which handles customer calls.
The collaboration will allow blind users of Microsoft products to solve hardware problems or perform tasks such as installing Windows software without human assistance.
“OpenAI is proud to work with Be My Eyes. They’ve used our AI models to significantly enhance the daily lives of people with low vision or blindness,” said OpenAI in this regard.
According to Be My Eyes, the AI tool helps speed up the processing of requests. On average, it takes four minutes to process a request. However, it takes about 12 minutes to process requests that involve people.
Be My Eyes also added that about 560 thousand people have registered with the startup since its foundation. And after the launch of the AI function, the app gained 25 thousand new users.