AI transcription takes on regional accents

AI is catching everyone’s interest, and we are increasingly being asked “is AI impacting your business?” and, along with many other industries, we would be naive not to consider the long-term implication of AI for the transcription industry.

However, while listening to Susie Dent talking recently about AI and accents, she reminded me of the excellent Burnistoun TV show’s take on AI, and particularly the Scottish accent. In “Voice Activated Elevator” (BBC Scotland, iPlayer, 2009), two Glaswegian men are in a lift trying to get the AI voice recognition software to take them to the eleventh floor. Even using their most refined accents, it was not happening. 

That is why we value the skills of our human transcription team, particularly when it comes to deciphering those things that AI just cannot seem to get a handle on: strong regional accents, colloquialisms and local terminology. As our team is spread across the UK, we can handpick the best person to be able to transcribe the dialect and the regional nuances. It’s this level of personalisation and attention to detail that you just won’t get with AI software.

As part of the services we offer, we proof AI transcripts that clients have provided to us and these have highlighted to us some of the things that AI struggles with. A recent couple of examples was its complete lack of understanding of the term “PAP smear”, so it went with the next best thing it could relate it to “Papa Smurf”, throughout the AI generated transcript.

Another example was when it could not decipher what was being said and rather than doing what a human transcriptionist would do, mark it inaudible and time stamp it, it just decided to go with “I love you”, for every instance. Very sweet, but maybe not the professional approach the researcher was going with. AI assumes that it is right – and as my dad used to say “if you say something with enough confidence, everyone will believe you”.

But we have something that AI doesn’t – common sense. It is obvious to us when something isn’t right, when it doesn’t sound right or when something we have heard just doesn’t make sense, and we can query it. We can go further, look deeper, and research until we are 100% confident that what we’ve transcribed is accurate – and if it’s not, we’ll admit it and highlight it for checking by the client. We know that we’re fallible – AI doesn’t!

And there’s a misconception that AI is quicker, and therefore cheaper. It’s really not. With typing speeds of up to 100 words per minute, our team are very often quicker at re-typing the transcript from scratch than they are in editing the AI document. Even where the AI transcription of the text is good, the reformatting, re-punctuation and editing to make a readable document takes as much time. 

So, our call to action – if you have a recording that you want transcribed – look to the professionals who will save you time and money in the long run. Appreciate the skills of our amazing team, honed over years of practice, and unlike AI itself, don’t assume it’s the best option for your needs.

And if you’d like to check out the Burnistoun clip – but please be aware of strong adult language and themes watch here