Just how cool would it be if artificial intelligence (AI) could learn American Sign Language? Well, there's a student in India identified as Priyanjali Gupta who made an AI model that translated sign language into English. Gupta was a third-year engineer from India’s Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). She made an AI model that can translate American Sign Language into English in real-time. As reported by an Inquirer.net article, “She invented the AI model using Tensorflow object detection API that translates hand gestures using transfer learning from a pre-trained model named ssd_mobilenet.” When Gupta signed basic signs such as Hello, I Love You, Thank You, Please, Yes, and No, the AI was able to translate those to English.
Despite how amazing this revolutionary invention is, there is still a question to be answered... Is learning American Sign Language from an AI ideal?
While it's amazing that people create inventions such as AIs that can translate ASL to English expecting to bridge the communication gap between the Deaf and hearing people, it is probably not ideal and realistic to learn ASL from AIs for a number of reasons.
Make sure you check out the infographic below to know why:
