Facebook paid people to transcribe Messenger voice chats

Add Facebook to the list of tech firms who've halted their audio transcriptions over privacy concerns. The company confirmed to Bloomberg that contractors had been transcribing Messenger voice chats to determine if AI had correctly interpreted the m...

Surprise: People are listening to your Google Assistant queries

It's no secret that Google records your conversations with Google Assistant after you say a "wake word." But what you might not know is that Google uses contractors to manually review a handful of those recordings, about 0.2 percent. Yesterday, VRT N...

Microsoft brings live captions and subtitles to PowerPoint

Microsoft is rolling out a new accessibility feature for PowerPoint, one that stands to help speakers ensure their presentations are understood by their entire audience. The company notes that in cases where audience members are hard of hearing or sp...

Google’s call screening transcripts roll out to Pixel owners

You no longer have to stare at your Pixel to see whether or not that Assistant-screened call was worth answering. Pixel owners have reported that Call Screen transcripts are starting to reach their devices, including older devices as well as the Pixe...

Microsoft OneDrive will use AI to make searchable video transcripts

You've probably had that moment where you wanted to track down an important piece of information from a video, but weren't sure when it was said. If so, Microsoft wants to come to your aid -- it's introducing media searching in OneDrive (and SharePo...

Google voice recognition could transcribe doctor visits

Doctors work long hours, and a disturbingly large part of that is documenting patient visits -- one study indicates that they spend 6 hours of an 11-hour day making sure their records are up to snuff. But how do you streamline that work without hiri...

AI takes the headaches out of transcribing voice recordings

Ask many interviewers about their least favorite part of the job and they'll almost always point to transcription. It can take hours to turn even a short chat into text, which is a serious pain for everyone from reporters to police interrogators. C...