379

Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.”

But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.

Experts said that such fabrications are problematic because Whisper is being used in a slew of industries worldwide to translate and transcribe interviews, generate text in popular consumer technologies and create subtitles for videos.

More concerning, they said, is a rush by medical centers to utilize Whisper-based tools to transcribe patients’ consultations with doctors, despite OpenAI’ s warnings that the tool should not be used in “high-risk domains.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] TheBlackLounge@lemm.ee 21 points 5 days ago

Whisper really is a lot better when it works, and it's free. The problem is that it refuses to produce gibberish or give up when it doesn't work. You'll always need an editor.

[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 36 points 5 days ago

The toaster oven I just invented works much better than a traditional one. It reheats French fries perfectly, you can dehydrate in it, makes succulent roasted chicken, and about 2.5% of the time it burns down your house. You'll always need to keep an eye on it to make sure that doesn't happen. Remember though, much better than a traditional one.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago

Can I try the chicken before I make a decision?

[-] TheBlackLounge@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

You need an editor for traditional transcription tools too :) and it's A LOT more work. They don't even do punctuation or names.

[-] wdx@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago

This definition of "better" feels like claiming that a Beeper that's constantly hooked to power is the perfect alarm because it warns you every time someone is trying to break in - while entirely ignoring that it is just constantly blaring.

[-] TheBlackLounge@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago

I use it for generating subtitles. It figures out context, it ignores stuttering, it does punctuation etc. It's really is just better. With clean audio it transcribes like a human does.

It does better than other techniques with dirty audio, but when it fails it fails weird, which is the big issue here.

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
379 points (98.2% liked)

Technology

59020 readers
3491 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS