How the spirit of Louis Braille lives on in today’s AI innovators

Microsoft President Brad Smith traveled to Louis Braille’s childhood home in France to look at the history behind his centuries-old invention that made reading possible through touch. This recent journey, part of the Today in Technology series, ended at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA, with a demonstration of Seeing AI. The talking camera app, created for the blind community, “speaks what it sees,” says Anirudh Koul, a senior data scientist at Microsoft, and it uses the power of AI to make the visual world an auditory experience. The company will continue to leverage AI solutions like this as it invests $25 million over 5 years in the AI for Accessibility grant program to build technology for people with disabilities. For more on this AI solution with a connection to the past, visit Today in Technology.