The old adage “you get what you pay for” is one we stand by when it comes to transcription services. Indeed, we’ve even been asked why investing in professional transcription is necessary – after all, there are tools available these days that even convert speech to text… surely they’ll do?! But then someone recently shared with us the experience they had of using the dictation option in Microsoft Word… and all became clear!
It doesn’t work very well!
The task seemed simple enough: dictate a speech (or indeed play a recorded conversation) into the dictation function and Microsoft Word will convert it into text. No having to type it up yourself, stopping and starting a recording in what can be a time consuming process to be able to pull together all the content.
Sounds simple enough.
But the technology just isn’t advanced enough.
It can’t keep up with the speed of the person speaking at a normal pace, so when you read back the text it has gaps and doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t recognise some of the words, especially when in this case the subject matter included some technical IT terms. It also fails to add any punctuation.
Here’s just a small sample:
that that’s noble then that’s true in that time from simply they simply are inoperative sense yes the same transformation yeah call Logan please free renewed effect ground up we we increased their the bad words by 1000% wow no wireless coverage my point wasn’t just about the wrong technology…
You get the drift!
Trying to unpick the meaning behind reams of text that was intermittently transcribed and didn’t understand the meaning correctly was almost impossible. In the end, it was much quicker to revert to the original plan of listening to the recording and manually typing up the content!
The bottom line: AI for professional transcription isn’t quite there yet
AI has indeed moved on since it was first seen in the 1950s. Those early computers were able to recognise around 10 words as long as they were spoken very clearly by a single speaker. By the 1980s the technology had developed so much that machines were able to transcribe simple speech that had a vocabulary of around 1,000 words.
But it cannot fully replace human beings as yet. One of the main reasons for this is AI’s inability to interpret meaning or understand emotion – something us humans are much better at doing!
Trust the professionals
Fiona Shipley clients call upon our professional transcription services because they trust that we will produce a quality product.
Our team of highly experienced transcribers are skilled in handling recordings in different formats, taken from meetings of all sizes and structures, and understanding the particular terminology of your business or sector. Our editors ensure the finished product is accurate and its meaning clear; the final copy is a precise record of your meeting, interview or conference.
For a professional transcription service that delivers an accurate, quality record of your meeting or event, please contact us 01737 852 225 or email alex@fionashipley.com.