One of the good use cases of AI.

@rolle @MonaApp would be even better if i could use a local llm for this

@lashman @MonaApp Yes, it’s difficult on iPhone without dependencies. I have an app called Locally AI that runs chatbots with local LLMs on iPhone, but it downloads gigabytes of data inside the app, I doubt Mona would want to do that. However, a "set up your local OpenAI/ollama API endpoint URL here" option would be nice. That way, it would be possible to connect Open WebUI or LLM Studio (and similar tools) to the app.

@rolle @MonaApp yeah, the latter is what i meant, sorry, should've clarified

@rolle @MonaApp I think the question "does this improve life for everyone" is a pretty good minimum bar.

There are sometimes where I just want a literal description for the alt image. But I've also learned that the alt image is an opportunity for jokes, enhancements, and other amusements that we would miss out on with auto-generated descriptions.

Though, in a world where my options are between far too few descriptions and some fun, and comprehensive descriptions but less fun I'll take that one

@rolle @MonaApp FWIW, some blind people seem to take LLM-generated alt text as a personal insult and a sign of contempt. There was a long discussion about AltBot (an auto-description generator) which resulted in the tool being taken down rather than offend people.

(I’ve found similar alt text generators often useful but they do usually require heavy editing of the text so as not to sound off-puttingly sloppish)

@tero Hmm, interesting. That sounds more like anti-AI or Mastodon HOA behavior than anything else. If the text is descriptive, would it really matter?

Naturally, if the text is incomplete or contains mistakes, those should be corrected, regardless of whether AI was used or not. But I honestly don't see how using a tool to streamline writing descriptive text is a bad thing in itself.

Curious to hear what @tuukkao and @zersiax think?

@MonaApp

@rolle @MonaApp @tero @zersiax Personally I don't care if AI has been used to write some kind of alt text which has been edited to show context and intent, but reading unedited AI slop does put me off as it would anyone else. If I want that I can just use the apps on my phone.

@tuukkao I can see how it's different if it's clearly all AI with no human effort at all, I don't enjoy reading those either. But if you can't really tell or a human has reviewed it, I think it's perfectly fine. Using AI alone shouldn't be a problem, it's more about how you use it.

It just sounds like some people want to ban AI for writing alt text altogether, and I think that's a bad idea. In this narrow scope, how is AI any different from OCR, which has been around forever? It's just a tool meant to help, nothing more.

@MonaApp @tero @zersiax

@zersiax @tero @rolle @MonaApp I believe the problem was that a lot of people used to post completely unedited Altbot-generated alt texts without giving any thought on what it actually should contain. I would think most people genuinely thought those suggestions were always good enough.