6 Reasons Why Machine Transcriptions Will Never Replace Human Transcribers

The fight between human and machine is never ending. Thus, ‘machine transcription vs human transcription’ is the biggest topic of today; and with the time passing by, it is just getting more intense. No wonder, technology has blessed us with n numbers of advantages. But, it has a dark side too, that is often neglected by the modern entrepreneurs. Honestly speaking, the business owners should not be blamed for this. When we look at both the options, they appear to be quite similar at the surface. Hence, due to lack of awareness or knowledge, they choose the former one. They forget to look deep inside the options and compare the two, on the basis of their characteristics.

Many studies have been conducted on finding the right option amongst the two. As per the outcomes, it has been detected that machine transcriptions can never replace human transcribers.

The reasons behind this are very simple, yet difficult to understand. Hence, get all your focus here and find out the top reasons why humans are better than any automated technology –

1. Accuracy

Human transcription is generally regarded as more qualitative than the automated one. This is because the former is performed by humans (experts in the field), while the latter is performed using speech recognition technology, which disrupts the applications of speech to text translation. Humans clearly understand the style, tone and context of the audio files, while the machines are just programmed to convert audio into text. Thus, the latter does not commit accuracy.

2. Time Involved

The time involved in transcription via machine is lesser than that by the human. Since it is a machine, it can perform the task within few seconds. However, you cannot be confirmed about its quality. Humans do take time in transcription. But, they deliver it in high quality in the very first attempt. You need not to invest your time, money and other resources in sending it for re-correction, several times. Also, it should be noted that the project is delivered within proposed time frame. So, if you weigh quality more than quantity, it is human transcription that is better than machine transcription.

3. Subject Matter Expertise

Transcription is majorly demanded in legal, media and medical industries, which require high quality output. Thus, in this case as well, human expertise is better than machine programming. A human transcriber possesses years of knowledge and talent in working for the said industry. Also, he gets trained in transcription for the specific sector, whereas, machines lack all of such attributes. Machines do not understand the very basic nature of legal, media and medical industries. So, how will they end up with an accurate output?

4. Advantages

No matter, it is human vs. machine translation or human vs machine transcription, humans have always fought the battle bravely, and came up as the victor. Thus, the former has more advantages than the latter. By outsourcing the former, one gets instant access to a team that can easily polish transcriptions; eliminate any errors; important factors and contextual variations are given major importance and highest grade of accuracy is achieved. On the other hand, machine transcription can be a money saving activity. However, only in the short run.

5. Punctuation and Grammar

Although the machine would be programmed perfectly for grammar and punctuation rules, yet the quality delivered by any human would be higher than that by the machine. The audio generally constitutes conversation between two or more people, and while sharing their ideas, they may take pauses, to take a sip of coffee or just recollecting the thoughts etc. So, how would a computer get to know that what was the pause for? It might mistake the pause to be a pause taken at the end of a paragraph or a sentence. Hence, the whole meaning would change.

6. Accent & Multiple Speakers

There may be some audio files, which contain multiple accents or speakers. This makes it difficult for a machine to recognize different voices or accents spoken by the people involved in the audio file. Also, the flow of information exchanged among the people in the audio, might be too much to handle, for a machine. Sometimes, the background noise may also be a hurdle for a machine to detect what’s being spoken. However, none of these is a challenge to a human transcriber. No matter, how tough the audio is, in terms of number of speakers, background noise, industry jargons etc., human talent will never let you down.

Conclusion

Both automated technology and human transcription have advantages of their own. However, if you are looking for high quality output, you should always vouch for human talent. Accuracy, speed, time efficiency and everything else favours human expertise more than machine programming. Hence, next time, you invest in transcription, do consider these points and make the right decision. Technology is not bad. It is created just to make things easier for us. But, when it comes to business, you cannot afford to make mistakes; and machines do commit mistakes in the language world.

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