Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Google Voice Doesn't Understand You

I've got Google Voice attached to my voicemail. If you're unfamiliar, GV automatically transcribes voicemail messages into text that can be read.

Invariably, it does a poor job of this.

Voicemail I received on Sunday, transcribed by ME:

"Yo! It's your buddy Nick callin'. Uhhh, Happy Mother's Day. I was just calling to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. All right, uhh, cool. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

The same voicemail, transcribed by GOOGLE VOICE:

"Yo. It's your buddy Nick. Call length, I have to move this thing. I was just calling to wish you Happy Birthday. So alright school. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

Let's break down where it got confused.

Nick callin' was translated as Nick call length

Uhhh, Happy Mother's Day was translated as I have to move this thing.

Happy Mother's Day was translated as Happy Birthday. (The computer doesn't seem to understand the concept of motherhood.)

uhh, cool turned into school.

All in all, this isn't the worst example of its efforts.

[I should really think about calling Nick back at some point.]

4 Comments:

Blogger Nicholas Gaffney said...

Actually google voice got it right. I just mumble a lot when I talk.

5/10/2011 11:13:00 AM  
Blogger M. Alice said...

Why are you defending GV? You're afraid of GOOGLE, aren't you! AREN'T YOU!!!

5/10/2011 02:12:00 PM  
Blogger Jet said...

*obviously* GV also lost Nick's message wishing me a Happy Mother's Day too...I mean, we did watch Finding Nemo together after all...

5/10/2011 05:27:00 PM  
Blogger M. Alice said...

Finding Nemo is like THE Mother's Day movie! Dis-re-spect!

5/10/2011 08:25:00 PM  

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