8 Reasons AI Can’t Replace Human Transcription

It’s normal to feel anxious when beginning a?new career direction . Since we witness technology improve efficiency and streamline procedures every day and it’s not uncommon to believe that the technology industry could “take control” the transcription business too.

Yes, artificial intelligence and voice-to-text are available. The technology is even employed by businesses. But it’s not going to be a substitute for human transcription. Here are the top reasons.

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1. It has to be taught to hear a single voice, but it isn’t able to do it accurately.

Artificial intelligence is referred to as because of a reason. It will evolve over time. If you’re using Alexa and Google Home or Siri, you’ll know what I’m talking about. As you continue to use the device the better it becomes at understanding the patterns of your voice. If you’ve been frustrated by the tiny machine that’s not listening or comprehending your voice, you’ll know that there’s still a long way to get there.

We don’t do a lot of typing jobs with one speaker, and just that speaker for the remainder of the time. It is essential to be able to hear the accents and work with background noise, or even crosstalk from several speakers.

AI isn’t able to parse the audio as a human would. Furthermore, AI takes one pass and that’s all it takes. Humans are able to play the same file repeatedly and employ different audio headsets and tools to obtain the best quality data.

2. It isn’t able to identify speakers.

The inability to distinguish speakers is extremely problematic since the majority of our work requires multiple speakers.

I’ve observed systems that separate “male speaker” from “female speaker” but due to the broad varieties of voices it’s not always correct and does not identify between different female or male voices within the same file.

3. Unable to format documents.

Although every system for voice-to-text will come with a standard template to produce text, they are not able to prepare a document in accordance with the specifications of the client.

Formatting can range from indentation, headers, and footers to the use of bold, italics, or quotation marks.

4. Unable to punctuate correctly.

If your smartphone creates an audio transcript each when someone leaves a voicemail, then you are aware that not only does the machine perform a poor (albeit sometimes humorous) job of capturing the message, but the system also performs a poor job at punctuating. Punctuation is a fine art.

We have rules however punctuating text with punctuation requires a skilled method. The process of punctuating spoken words requires more thought and care and is something AI simply cannot do.

5. Unable to research unfamiliar terms and phrases.

Artificial intelligence is able to hear what it is hearing. More specifically, it hears what it?believes?and hears. Consider the many specific terms and acronyms for the industry that may pop up during the course of audio.

For instance, two popular acronyms used in Department of Education hearings are SEIT and SETSS. They are pronounced the same way as ordinary words (sets and seize it) however they mean something totally different.

Auto-generated transcripts would make use of the words, not acronyms, and it wouldn’t make sense.

Research is a major and vital element of our job as transcribers.

6. Unable to understand the context

As I stated in the previous paragraph about words and phrases importance of context is paramount when writing.

As transcribers, you write what you are hearing. However, you must set them in a proper context, by listening with a keen eye. Context is a determining factor in whether you’ll need to conduct an additional investigation (are they using an acronym rather than the word) and also provides information about the choice of punctuation.

7. It’s not a person with emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence is something we should be proud of. We are able to express emotions as well as show emotion and be able to read people’s thoughts immediately. Let’s look at an example of customer service. Companies can’t substitute all of their customer services using AI. People prefer intimate interactions with their robots as they cannot convey empathy or feelings to their customers. Therefore, without personal interactions businesses could end up losing customers.

Have you heard about soft skills, such as the ability to communicate and build relationships are growing more important in job interviews today than technical abilities?

Artificial Intelligence is quick as well as rational and precise. They aren’t intelligent, compassionate, and culturally sensitive. It is precisely these skills that humans have that make us efficient. Humans are the only ones who are able to read faces and immediately know the right word to use.

8. It doesn’t know Dialects & Slang

If a robot is presented with an unrelated word, it automatically corrects it to the most appropriate meaning or eliminates the word completely due to the fact that it’s not spelled out. Different cultures have their own terms in slang that machines can’t comprehend unless their programming is changed. Humans are able to recognize the meaning of slang simply by studying the word and then spelling the word correctly in the text.

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Conclusion

The job of transcribers is secure. There are businesses that employ proofreaders and transcribers to clean up transcripts generated by autos. This is a very tedious task which could be completed quicker and with greater accuracy when done by an actual human transcriber.

Originally published on - https://medium.com/beginnersblog/8-reasons-ai-cant-replace-human-transcription-c2197b471d53