Computers do not understand nuance, context, and relevance—the things alt text is needed for. And I do not believe this can possibly improve, at least currently, because of what a computer intrinsically IS.

April 10, 2026 - 18:09 UTC

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Computers are association machines. They are really good at creating links between things—as long as we have told them what those things are. When you try to take the person out of this picture, the computer just going to make associations without concern for veracity.
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And when programmers intervene (as they probably did to tell the thing that those are Star Trek uniforms), all it does is correct that one aspect. It doesn’t actually improve understanding—because there is no understanding.

Understanding requires nuance, context, and intuition.
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🎯

> Context is everything. The same image needs different alt text depending on where it appears. A headshot on an "About" page might be "Jane Smith, CEO" but on a blog post about leadership, it might be "CEO Jane Smith speaking at the 2024 Leadership Summit."

www.webability.io/glossary/alt-text
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