Chris McCausland blasts 'woke' AI and television audio descriptions

Chris McCausland has criticised woke AI and television audio description for not describing people’s race for fear of causing offence.The blind comic, 48, who last year won Strictly Come Dancing, is presenting a documentary for the BBC titled Seeing Into The Future about the future of technology this Autumn.In a new trailer for the programme, the comedian shows how reliant he is on his iPhone to describe the world around him which helps him navigate conversations and which outfits he chooses.But he said that though technology has greatly improved accessibility for blind people, it is lacking when it comes to audio description of faces.He told the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention: 'Something that I think needs to be looked at in terms of making it a truly great accessibility tool to get audio descriptions of faces.’‘You don’t want to be looking at a photograph of someone famous like Denzel Washington and all it says is ‘it’s a man’. You want to know that is a photograph of Denzel Washington, including race.''We have these protected statuses whether its race, religion, disability or so on, and sometimes it feels it can’t be commented on.’‘But it is important because these are things which are passively absorbed by everybody else without having to ask a question. When you talk to somebody when you’re blind you do want to build an image in your head. Chris McCausland (pictured) has criticised woke AI and television audio description for not describing people’s race for fear of causing offence‘I think ethnicity and cultural heritage are a really important part of somebody's character and shouldn't be something that were scared to flag and talk about as being a key part of their description.''I think the same thing can be applied to audio description on the telly. Don’t be afraid to say it’s a white guy in a wheelchair, it’s a black woman with braids, it’s an Asian man.‘These are important parts of people’s character and should be proud and should be a part of their descriptive attributes.'During the interview in Cambridge, McCausland used AI software on his iPhone to prove his point. He pointed his iPhone camera at the host, former CBBC presenter Angellica Bell.The technology described his interviewer as enthusiastically smiling and wearing a pin-stripe outfit, but failed to mention she is black.McCausland won Strictly Come Dancing last year with professional partner Dianne Buswell.The BBC announced yesterday that the pair would return to the ballroom during Saturday’s opening episode of the new series and reprise their BAFTA award-winning waltz to You’ll Never Walk Alone. Advertisement Share or comment on this article: Blind comic Chris McCausland blasts 'woke' AI and television audio descriptions for not detailing people's race

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