As I began working on a book in intergenerational trauma, I chose to interview descendants of Holocaust survivors regarding their experience growing up with survivors. I chose to record the interviews on Zoom and used AI software called Fathom to transcribe the interview.

What I quickly discovered was that machines cannot pick up all the subtleties of the English language, accents and how to spell names properly. Background noise impacts on an AI transcription. As a result I have been constantly going back to the recording to double check what was said. It’s become time consuming and frustrating. I also understand the context of what people are saying in their interviews, something the machines fail to do.

A good writer friend, Ellie Leonard has her own transcription business called Red Pencil Transcripts. Her clients have tried to replace her services but keep running back. That’s because Ellie does things that a computer does not do such as check spelling of names and acronyms to get them right. Several years ago the New York Times did an article on AI featuring Ellie. The points made in the article are still valid in 2024. Machines can try to duplicate what we do, but like the self-driving cars, they can easily be confused.