Human Transcription Services

What Is Human Transcription?

Transcription is the creation of a written version of an audio or video recording. A person performs human transcription, not AI. A human listens to the recording and types out whatever they hear, relying on their ability to interpret even the finest details of human speech, like accents and context. Unlike automated services, professional transcription services like Ditto Transcripts can accurately transcribe audio with multiple speakers, background noise, or technical jargon. 

Why AI Transcription Is Not A Viable Option

One of the main strengths of AI is that it can parse and process information at speeds that match nothing we’ve seen or developed before. 

That’s to be expected since AI uses enhanced silicon, parallel processing, and high computational speeds that far outstrip anything our electrically-charged natural grey-matter processors (AKA our brains) can ever achieve.

That means AI can produce transcripts faster compared to human transcribers. 

But, like anything, there’s a time and a place for using AI, and transcription might not be the best use for it. 

An accurate transcription process requires an exceptional degree of accuracy, given the industries and situations that demand its services. 

Law enforcement uses, legal discussions, courtroom hearings, corporate board meetings, academic and market research, medical transcription, and insurance reviews. These are just a few instances where transcription is vital. For all of them, accuracy is key. 

And yet, AI is only 61.92% accurate at the best of times.

The Ethical Cost of AI Transcription

Businesses want to save money while making more, that’s nothing new. However, there has to be a point at which we draw the line between padding the corporate earnings report and considering the impact of business practices on others. 

So, AI is fast and potentially cheap, but the headaches that come with makes it not worth the trouble.

That’s why Ditto Transcript’s premier human transcription services are still the gold standard for many industries.

Affordable Human Transcription Rates With Guaranteed 99.9% Accuracy

The Benefits of Accurate Human Transcription

We’ve covered accuracy in discussing the merits of traditional transcription compared to automated solutions, and make no mistake, accuracy is one of the most crucial aspects of the human vs. AI transcription argument. But it doesn’t end there; human transcription has various other benefits. Here are some of them: 

Ability to Adapt to Audio Issues, Context, Accents, and Dialects

Human speech is a dizzying amalgamation of sounds, almost all of which vary depending on region, country, culture, educational background, and other disparate factors, despite belonging to the same language.

It’s more like ordered chaos than a rigid communication system.

Even worse for automated speech recognition (ASR) software, human speech is constantly evolving. Having an AI work on a recording with accents, terminologies, and speech patterns different from its training data is an exercise in futility. And remember, audio and video files don’t always come in pristine, uncompressed formats. Sometimes, they sound like they were recorded using equipment from the 80s. 

Humans are better at understanding humans. Furthermore, they handle ambiguity better than ASRs, as they can take context into account and apply it to the situation, or ask for clarification if necessary. This makes them infinitely better in situations where AI falters. That’s why humans can do it better, no question. 

Handling Complex, Industry-specific Recordings

Transcribing content in specialized fields or industries that require domain-specific knowledge (e.g., legal, medical, law enforcement, business, academia) is often better handled by human transcribers who can understand and interpret the subject matter at a deeper, more intuitive level. 

For example, AI may not understand all the jargon in the legal field, especially if it hasn’t been trained on that material. 

AI struggles with complex terminology, which directly affects its ability to produce accurate transcripts. Law offices, for example, often use legalese and Latin phrases. An experienced legal transcriber will have no issues with that. AI not trained in the language will have nothing but problems, and the resulting transcript will be of poor quality. I still remember using voice recognition to type In flagrante delicto and getting “infle granted delicto” as a result. 

Then there’s the fact that many transcripts follow different formatting rules and legal requirements. Captioning and subtitles are not the same as, say, legal transcription. Medical transcription must be compliant with several federal laws, including HIPAA. Verbatim transcription is needed for courts. 

Unless you train AI on every little detail for every industry, you’re not going to get the results that you want.

On the other hand, human transcription services have been doing this since before ChatGPT was even a thing. We’ve been submitting transcripts to law offices, courts, corporations, universities, and everyone in between – all to overwhelming positive feedback.

Privacy and Security

Human-powered transcription service providers handle sensitive data daily. Most of them offer enhanced security to protect their clients’ data, and regulatory measures such as HIPAA and CJIS compliance serve as further markers of a secure and trustworthy transcription company. Meanwhile, AI might not be as safe as others would like. Here’s a quick example. 

In March 2023, ChatGPT was taken offline to fix a privacy leak that allowed users to view other users’ personal data, payment information, and chat histories. It took them a few days from the initial report to the eventual fix, and OpenAI reported that only about 1.12% of users were affected by the error. In the same month, about 1.6 billion people used ChatGPT. That means about 18 million users had their information freely available to others. 

For the transcription industry, that kind of data breach is unacceptable.

Imagine HIPAA-protected patient information, classified business processes, and legal case strategies being shown to others.

Choose Ditto For That Human Touch

Ditto Transcripts has been a leader in the industry since 2010, providing accurate transcription services to a wide range of agencies, companies, and individuals across Colorado and coast to coast.

We don’t settle for less. You get human transcribers, human project managers, and human customer service experts at all points in your transcription project.

We’ll prioritize your transcription requirements when you need them, with turnaround times as fast as 24 hours. 

So, let’s get your audio transcribed. Call us at (720) 287-3710 if you need accurate market research transcription services.

We’re open between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (Mountain Time) Monday through Friday.

Satisfied transcription service seekers 101. (Not a real course, just real clients).

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