OTTER.AI = AutoTranscription web-app = Voice (MP3-file OR fr Mic) to Text = 600 min. Free / mon.)

So, I once needed a 30-min interview transcribed.

'tried to outsource the job to someone on Fiverr.com,
whose Vendors offer to do small tasks, fr US$ 5.00 up.

After finding Vendors' Offers (on virtual Bus.Cards)
not consistent with their actual quoted-prices(!), I
left all that behind, & my (low priority) job stayed
in my To Do box, for a few days…

Today, I found "OTTER.AI" which did an Impressive job
for Free (the 1st 600 min's being Free each month.)

My experience autoTranscribing a clear 30 min podcast:

Either it took longer than I expected OR I missed the
"Job Done" flag. But the Transciption wasn't bad; Not
perfect, of course, but the result was easy to read &
"unforgivable" errors were few in number.

Punctuation errors where common (How long of a pause
deserves a Full-Stop? is hard to know), as were word-
forms, eg, got "module" for speaker's "modular"

More often than not, it managed to space paragraphs
correctly. (These tended, in the interview, to corres-
pond to separating what Interviewer & Interviewee
said, resp.)

Although the 2 people were of different genders, the
web-app didn't label each (or every other) paragraph
with a speaker-tag (A or B - or M or F - would have
helped identify each person's words).

[Product] Names (eg, "NuScale") were mapped to more
common words (eg, "new scale" or similar), as expec-
ted. Some Capitalizations were lost, eg, in lengthy
(multi-word) department names.

We've yet to do a spellcheck on the resulting text,
but I'd say it'd be hard to find many misspellings.

The web-app's simple user interface, is easy to use,
allowing Recording from computer's mic. (not tested)
OR Uploading of an audio (or video, the latter also
Not tested, by us) file.

Dunno who else might need an occasional transcrip-
tion done, but - if you're willing to spend the time
fixing-up the subtle errors, left in the Text file -
it might enable some enterprising people to offer an
online transcription service - without (necessarily)
letting clients know that you had help from an AI.

;~)

Enjoy!

Poll Options

  • 4
    1 = Awesome
  • 0
    2 = Not Bad
  • 5
    3 = Awful

Comments

  • We've yet to do a spellcheck on the resulting text

    When you do, please make sure it's Aussie English (capitalisations not Capitalizations)

  • Crappy copy and paste job on the post.

    I do not approve.

Login or Join to leave a comment