Department of Wit - Paging Dr Malaprop!
Reader's Digest India|November 2017

MY WORK AS A medical transcriptionist (MT) brings me in intimate contact with voice recognition (VR) software.

M. K. Wolfe
Department of Wit - Paging Dr Malaprop!

We MTs listen to a doctor’s dictation while reviewing the VR’s first pass at the typewritten medical record and edit as we go.

Now, I know voice recognition is technically just a series of digital ones and zeros in a particular order, but I have come to believe that the software has the soul of an idiot savant—a ghost in the machine, if you will. VR software can decipher the thickest of accents talking at lightning speed using dense medical terminology and get it right. But VR software is also comically stupid, as these real examples demonstrate.

Take names. Does McRoberts really sound like Crab Birds? Is it the savant or the idiot who listens to ordinary names and hears Mr Breakfast, Ms Pulseless, Dr Mean ItchMs The Kittens, Dr Ominous and Mr Loop Brains?

Denne historien er fra November 2017-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.

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Denne historien er fra November 2017-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.