Re: Reflow

Thank you for your reply, Milan. However, the writer of that article I gave
the link for doesn't claim to be an AI expert, but he wasn't being naive
either. The point he was making was that he asked ChatGPT a perfectly
reasonable query, of the kind that anyone not expert in accessibility might
ask (questions people are already asking), hoping to get help with their
website accessibility. The unfortunate point he had to make was that the
reply ChatGPT returned was misleading and inaccurate, so would mislead all
those people who want to rely on it.

You may not see him as expert in AI, but he knew enough (and considerably
more than I know about it, for instance, and more than most people
probably) to obtain clarification from that AI tool, including two frank
admissions that it had given wrong info! You say we should train before
using ChatGPT. I would say ChatGPT is there for everyone to use; it just
shouldn't be used for matters it cannot handle.

The deeper point he was making, and with which I wholeheartedly agree, is
that AI is simply not clever enough, yet, to provide authoritative guidance
on subjects as complex as web accessibility and accessibility audits. I
view with extreme concern the fact that some sections of the web dev world
are already hailing AI as the answer to all their prayers - hence my
original comment. Some (too many) want to do accessibility the easy, cheap
way, by shoving the problem off onto a simple tool and so avoid the need to
spend time and effort themselves to learn how to create accessible
websites.

In that, they are tying to use it the same way that many have long used
automated test tools and accessibility "overlays", as a quick fix without
understanding (or in some cases even caring) if the tools can truly do it.
That test illustrates what will go wrong if developers try to use it for
this purpose. There are no easy get-outs to accessibility. Web developers
and designers and testers must all learn how to do it themselves (or bring
in outside help). However good AI may become in the future (and I have my
reservations on that) it is not ready yet for this purpose.