The Rev system allows the customer to choose whether they want more accuracy or a quicker turnaround at lower cost, said Jason Chicola, the company’s founder and chief executive. As a result, transcription is pushing into a variety of new areas, including captioning for YouTube channels, corporate training videos and market research firms who need transcripts from focus groups. Coupled with the plunging cost of storing data, it is now possible to use human language in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago.Ĭompanies such as Rev, which began in 2010 using temporary workers to offer transcription for $1 a minute, offers an additional automated speech transcription service for 10 cents a minute. By capturing vast quantities of human speech, neural network programs can be trained to recognize spoken language with accuracy rates that in the best circumstances approach 95 percent. Improvements in software technology have made automatic speech transcription possible. His company offers a service that automatically transcribes speech with high enough accuracy that it is gaining popularity with journalists, students, podcasters and corporate workers. Liang, who is the chief executive and co-founder of Otter.ai, a Silicon Valley start-up, has set out to do something about that in the future. “I really miss her,” he said of her death in 2001. Sam Liang longs for his mother and wishes he could recapture the things she told him when he was in high school. This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series, which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve.

Otter voice dictation