Visually-impaired people are finding new independence with AI glasses. "CBS Saturday Morning" meets Emeline Lakrout, an active, visually-impaired New Yorker who has found new ways to use AI glasses to her advantage.

New York

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Meta's AI glasses are being used by visually-impaired individuals to increase their independence in daily life. Emmeline LaCroute, a legally blind New Yorker, demonstrates how the glasses assist her with tasks such as sorting mail, grocery shopping, and reading menus by combining AI features and volunteer support through the Be My Eyes app.

While the technology is not flawless and occasionally encounters technical issues, it is praised for making everyday activities faster and more accessible. Leaders in the blind community highlight the glasses as a significant advancement, expanding opportunities and access to information for visually-impaired people.

AI glasses foster independence for visually-impaired people

Meet Emmeline LaCroute, a busy New Yorker who rock climbs, swims, and runs. She leads an active lifestyle despite being declared legally blind at the age of eight. You don't really let anything slow you down, do you? No. How important has it been that you've become so comfortable with technology? It's everything. To keep functioning and to keep working and keep living my life, it's very important that I'm savvy and adaptable on a daily basis. One of her newest tools, Meta's AI glasses. Meta created the glasses to stream video on the go and use AI to interact with the world around you. But some people in the blind community have found new ways to use them. To demonstrate the promise of this technology, LaCroute lets our cameras follow her for a day. Hey Meta, call Be My Eyes. Be My Eyes is a free app that connects visually impaired users with more than 9 million global volunteers. Hello? For this demonstration, Be My Eyes directed LaCroute's calls to Bart Steinhorn, who volunteers in his free time from his office. I have some mail here, and I'm wondering if you could just help me sort through junk mail and real mail. Sure, I can help you with that. With the glasses, it's like he can see through her eyes. This is from a company called Amica. Okay, I don't know what that is. It doesn't feel glossy or anything, so I'm going to put it separately. I'll look at that one after. Then, she uses AI to read her mail. Hey Meta, look. The brochure appears to be from an insurance company. Read the entire document. Life doesn't come with guarantees, but we do. And she even gets an assist grocery shopping. Okay, those are all fruits. Ooh, I might get some watermelon. So go to your left, and I believe you'll find, yeah. After she checks out, AI reads her receipt. The total was $70.08. On the subway, the AI helps her find her train. But then she hits a snack. She's buffering, hang on. And runs out of batteries. When LaCroute meets me at a restaurant, the glasses help her read a menu. Hey Meta, can you list the main courses? The main courses listed on the menu are short rib burger, tuna crispy rice, caviar lobster rolls. But there are glitches. Look at this menu and tell me the price for the short rib burger. I can't help with requests about product placement. Oh man. Would you say that these glasses and this technology is giving you more independence? Blind people have fought for their independence for decades. And the technology maybe isn't enabling that. But what the glasses do is they make things so much easier. They make things faster, and they also expand opportunities. Wearable technology that includes opportunities for blind people to get access to information is a huge win for blind people. Mark Riccobono is the president of the National Federation of the Blind. You've used the glasses. How have you found them? Works well for some things, doesn't work well in other situations, and it's still evolving. We know it's going to get better based on the lived experience of blind people. As for LaCroute, she believes the AI glasses give her a new level of freedom. It makes things that used to be super impractical now totally reasonable and much more within the field of view for me.

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Tallinn

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Washington

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Moscow

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Tehran

Middle East Conflict

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Chicago

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Sacramento

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Orem

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Ukraine Invasion

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Tiranë

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AI glasses foster independence for visually-impaired people

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Rise of AI