Otter.ai is a
Mountain View, California
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376.
Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is th ...
-based technology company that develops
speech to text
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the ma ...
transcription
Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including:
Genetics
* Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...
applications using
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
and
machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
. Its software, called Otter, shows captions for live speakers, and generates written transcriptions of the speeches.
History
Otter.ai was founded as AISense in 2016 by Sam Liang and Yun Fu, two computer science engineers with a long history of working with artificial intelligence.
In January 2018, the company announced a partnership with
Zoom Video Communications
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (commonly shortened to Zoom, and stylized as zoom) is an American communications technology company headquartered in San Jose, California. It provides videotelephony and online chat services through a cloud-based ...
to transcribe video meetings after they are held.
In March, the company debuted its first Otter speech translation app at
Mobile World Congress
MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show organised by GSMA, dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry.
The event is held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain at the ...
.
[ It was available for free for Google's Android and Apple's mobile products.][ In October, the company launched Otter for Education, a note taking tool for college students.]
Technology
To develop its speech transcription technology, the company says it combined deep
Deep or The Deep may refer to:
Places United States
* Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia
* Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah
* Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania
* Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary), ...
machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
using millions of hours of audio recordings, which were analyzed to train the software and improve the transcription capabilities. The company says that it uses proprietary algorithms to scour the web for these usable audio segments.
In March 2018, technology news site ZDNet
ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures.
The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication.
H ...
reported concerns about Otter's privacy policy, noting that the company could access uploaded recordings and transcriptions. In response the company updated the policy and stated that only the CTO would allow access to transcriptions after a "legitimate user request".Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' highlighted concerns about the privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
practices of Otter after the company queried a journalist about the purpose of a meeting, transcribed through Otter, with a Uyghur activist.
AI Meeting Assistant
In February of 2023, Otter.ai launched a new AI meeting assistant called OtterPilot, which automates meetings and helps professionals save time and increase productivity. The new features include an AI-generated summary of key meeting topics, automated capture of images of slides shared during virtual meetings, and real-time meeting notes that can be shared and collaborated on. OtterPilot also includes the company's bot, Otter Assistant, which can automatically join meetings on a user's calendar and transcribe conversations. The new meeting assistant is available to all users and aims to eliminate note-taking and improve meeting productivity.
Reception
Digital media website Mashable
Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005.
History
Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were ...
and technology publication Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year.
History
''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan We ...
named Otter one of the best apps of 2018.
References
External links
*{{official website
Web applications
Automatic identification and data capture
Speech recognition