Speech recognition systems have higher error rates for black people, study finds

No, you're not just imagining it. Speech recognition systems developed by the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft all have higher error rates when transcribing speech from black people than when doing so for white people. 

So finds a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which notes that the increased prevalence of these systems in modern day life risks enshrining a new form of digital discrimination unless action is taken. 

"Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems are now used in a variety of applications to convert spoken language to text, from virtual assistants, to closed captioning, to hands-free computing," wrote the study's authors. "Our results point to hurdles faced by African Americans in using increasingly widespread tools driven by speech recognition technology." Read more...