Whispher is a popular transcription tool powered by artificial intelligence but it has a major flaw. It makes things up that were never said.
By Garance Burke and Hilke Schellmann, Associated PressAssistant professor of information science Allison Koenecke, an author of a recent study that found hallucinations in a speech-to-text transcription tool, works in her office at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. The text preceded by"#Ground truth" shows what was actually said while the sentences preceded by""text"" was how the transcription program interpreted the words.
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.” Such mistakes could have “really grave consequences,” particularly in hospital settings, said Alondra Nelson, who led the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for the Biden administration until last year.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the company continually studies how to reduce hallucinations and appreciated the researchers’ findings, adding that OpenAI incorporates feedback in model updates. In an example they uncovered, a speaker said, “He, the boy, was going to, I’m not sure exactly, take the umbrella.”
Researchers aren’t certain why Whisper and similar tools hallucinate, but software developers said the fabrications tend to occur amid pauses, background sounds or music playing.
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