Be My Eyes is an assistive-technology app launched in 2015 in Denmark by Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who is himself visually impaired. Blind and low-vision people connect via live video with sighted volunteers worldwide and get on-the-spot help with everyday tasks—reading labels and expiry dates, navigating unfamiliar places, matching clothing colors, sorting mail. Use is free. In 2023 'Be My AI,' using OpenAI's GPT-4, was added, so AI describes images and scenes without waiting for a volunteer. For businesses there is also 'Specialized Help,' partnering with the likes of Microsoft's disability-support desk. It now has about 750,000 users, about 8 million sighted volunteers, across 150 countries and 185 languages, with over 3.5 million AI-assisted sessions. The world has 340 million blind/low-vision people, and Be My Eyes also works to 'make AI inclusive, aligned with the lived experience of blind people.'
●●○ medium
There is no confirmed −; independently verified + decide the position (B). No unreachable strike-through.= non-additive meter
Be My Eyes: Borrowing the world's eyes to reclaim your own life. The letter is B; certainty is medium. Unconfirmed concerns are placed under “Watching.” (As of 2026-Q3; estimate based on public information.)
Main narrative
One person’s story (N1)
+ A single story
For blind/low-vision people, everyday acts like reading a label or grasping a scene become barriers. With Be My Eyes, Julia says 'it's just astonishing that someone on the other side of the world is in my kitchen helping me,' and Roberto says 'Be My AI is like an AI friend always at my side—I've gained unprecedented access to the visual world and become more independent.' It's free, 24-hour, in 185 languages.
Source nature: Be My Eyes／Google Play / P1 First-party / independent (app store). Positive effects are not used to offset negatives.
Positive / negative effects
+ effects
- Founded in Denmark in 2015 by Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who is visually impaired. A free app connecting blind/low-vision people and sighted volunteers via live video. Over 3.5 million AI sessions, 16,000 new users a month. Its Microsoft partnership cut support calls from 20 to 4 minutes. Impact investor Enable Ventures ($6.1M) rates it 'a model of AI for good.'P2 Independent (specialist media) / ImpactAlpha
− effects (confirmed)
- No confirmed −.
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- Effective reach in low-income, non-English regions; privacy governance of AI data partnerships; sustainability not dependent on Big Tech; accuracy of AI description and user sovereignty; outcome measurement of support quality.
A second look
The plus is an effect on blind/low-vision people (People)—independence and dignity through real-time visual assistance—free to users, founded by a person with the lived experience, at the scale of 8 million volunteers and 150 countries, and rated by impact investors like Enable Ventures as 'a model of AI for good.' Caveats: it is a for-profit company (impact-VC-backed) earning revenue from corporate contracts and AI data partnerships (supplying video data to Microsoft/OpenAI/Meta), and while that data use has opt-out and anonymization, there are the issues of privacy and dependence on Big Tech. Weighing the genuine plus of being free, founder-with-lived-experience and large-scale, but noting the for-profit and data partnerships, it sits within B.
Sources
How to read this assessment
- Reachable upper bound (ceiling): a confirmed − sets the ceiling, and independently verified + decide the position within it. + do not cancel out −.
- The weight of evidence is not symmetric: only confirmed − are counted; the volume of disputes or allegations goes under “Watching.” + are counted from independent evidence, while an organization’s own PR is treated as “reference.”
- Size is not value: scale is not used in the assessment. Matters that stay within money or competition—investors, shareholders, sanctions, trade secrets—are also excluded.
- The letter (assessment) and certainty (how reliable the information is) are separate axes.
This is a translation; the Japanese version is authoritative. The assessments here are generated automatically by AI based on published criteria. The operator does not alter individual results. Because they are AI-generated they may contain errors, and they are opinion and commentary, not statements of fact. Where evidence is insufficient, the entry is marked “On hold.” Requests for correction are accepted via the form.
Terms: Narrative Value = an assessment (A–G) of the distance between the narrative an organization tells and its reality / Ceiling meter = a visualization of the reachable upper bound / Watching = unconfirmed matters not counted / Protected stakeholders = people, animals, nature, and future generations. | Generated by: AI | As of: 2026-Q3 | Back to top