Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Voice recognition software’s bilingual problem

Molly Wood Nov 26, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Voice recognition software’s bilingual problem

Molly Wood Nov 26, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

As holiday shopping discounts kick into high gear this week, lots of people will be buying new smart phones. And whether you’re an iPhone or an Android, one of the features that has had a lot of attention recently is voice recognition. But the more hands-free our tech world tries to be, the more a particular problem grows. A lot of voice recognition software seems to work best for English. And even if you’re speaking English with an accent, Siri or Google might not translate nearly as well. Gabrielle Sama is the managing editor for CNET en Espanol. He and his reporting team have taken a close look at the issue. Sama joins Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson to talk about the continuing challenges of voice recognition software. 

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.