Blind Egyptian entrepreneur builds AI app that describes the world through audio

When Karen Morad, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Cairo, went on a Kenyan safari in June 2026, she experienced something she thought was impossible: “seeing” the animals around her despite being completely blind. That moment was made possible by ScribeMe, an AI-powered app created by her older brother, Mark, also blind, which turns a phone’s camera, or Meta smart glasses, into a real-time audio narrator of the world. This story, first reported by Reuters, shows how personal struggle, self-taught coding, and assistive AI can combine to give thousands of visually impaired people a new kind of independence.From personal loss to a global accessibility toolMark Morad (also referred to as Mark Sedky in a report by Enterprise.com) began losing his vision in 2018 due to a rare, incurable optic nerve condition; by late 2021, both he and his sister Karen were completely blind.