“Al has revolutionised my daily life,” says Louise  Plunkett from Norwich.

Ms Plunkett has a genetic eye condition called Stargardt disease, a rare condition that causes progressive vision loss, which she says , ” impacts everything I do”.  ” I can’t recognise people , even my own husband or my children . When my children were younger ,I used to have to teach them how to come to me when  I met them at the school playground.”

Ms Plunkett is comfortable with digital tools-her business advises companies on how to ensure their online contant is suitable for the visually impaired community .

She has used services like Alexa,Google Home and Siri for years, helping with tasks like setting alarms and weather checks. Now she is finding an assistant called  Be My Al useful.

The app uses ChatGPT to  generate and then read out detailed descriptions of pictures. “I’m quite a stubborn person ,”says Ms Plunkett . “I don’t like asking for help or admitting I need help,so using the Al tool is useful for things when other humans aren’t around.”

She says she might use it to check which is the female toilets, or read the ingredients on food packaging  ,or read a letter.

However,she feels that Al can sometimes be hit or miss. “The dowside with Al is that sometimes it gives you too many details.You sometimes just want the basic information of what is in front of you,but it will go above and beyond ,and offer up mood and emotions.

“For example, it might say’ a swirling carpet evoking memories of times gone by ‘.It feels like it is one step too far,”  Be My Al was developed by Danish firm Be My Eyes. Its original service put human volunteers in touch with its clients. Via mobile phone the volunteers would describe what was in found of the person with vision problems.

However,some of its 600,000 users are switching to their Al tool for help, says Jesper Hvirring Henriksen, chief technology officer. “We have a woman who was one of our first users 10 years ago,and within the first six months [of releasing Be  My Al], she did more than 600 image descriptions.”

He’s  also discovering people are using the app in ways they hadn’t imagined. “We are finding people using it to check pictures that have been sent to them on Whatsapp groups ,”he says.

“Maybe they’re  not going too call another human each time to ask them about a picture sent on a Whatsapp  group,but they use Al.” As for where it might go in the future ,he says live streaming video-with the tech describing buildings and movement around them-might be an area they move into.”This is going to be a gamechanger. Its like having a little person in your shirt pocket all day telling you what is going on.”

Be My Eyes , which is free to users, makes money by signing up companies to its paid-for directory service where they can provide information and numbers to the blind and low -vision community.

Mr Henrikson says Al won’t replace the need for human connection.

“At Be My Eyes, people are still choosing to call a volunteer too.