Discernment has entered the chat.

You do not have to venture far, whether digitally or physically, to notice a barrage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) product messaging calling to you from every direction. Even a search for new pillows is no longer safe from AI’s touch. In our non-profit media accessibility corner, we have also developed and evolved advanced proprietary solutions using automatic speech recognition captioning (ASR). It’s hard to believe that as recently as 7 years ago, automated captions seemed unlikely to meet our supremely high standard of quality and service.  Now automation is a part of daily conversation.

AI’s improvements are undoubtedly impressive -- helping us to do everything from plan gardens, increase transportation safety, provide risk assessment and preventative healthcare, etc.

But perhaps we have been too quick to assume it’s “one or the other.”

When we come across captioning companies with blanket statements claiming their ASR is “better than humans,” our response will always be to ask, “what specific context are we discussing?” 

 A time and a place 

ASR's talent relies on affordability, immediacy, and completeness. It’s ideal for programming with low background noise and clear speaking audio. It can distinguish between different speakers taking turns, boasts low latency between receiving audio and publishing the captions, and the automation empowers clients to control the immediacy of going live in unscheduled circumstances. Large news networks are often drawn to automated captions because it’s an affordable way to scale their viewership through automated translation. 

Human captioners have superpowers, too. They can understand context to properly publish complex terminology and avoid homophone errors, they can convey emotion, discern when someone is using sarcasm or imitation, add non-speech sound effects, and intuitively caption dialogue at a readable rate. Many viewers and organizations prefer human captioners in emergency situations, like the California wildfires, because it is an exchange of trust. We recognize that when you’re contending with high-stress circumstances, you may prefer a human who can appreciate context, convey emotion, and ensure the accuracy of life-saving information being broadcast. 

Human centered 

While others are proud to have strategically reduced or removed human captioning from their technology suite, NCI is committed to offering a balanced blend of production options. We know there’s a time and place for every approach. What never changes, however, is our mission of serving the end user. Our viewers and clients, with their own preferences, support, and trust, are the ultimate factor in our decisions. We will continue focusing on our mission of accessibility regardless of what captioning method is utilized. We are proud to offer all solutions. 

We’re the matchmakers 

We live for the nuance of pairing unique programs with the most appropriate type of caption service, and we’re here to empower you to make those decisions.

Reach out to our NCI team to help match your program to the most suitable captioning options!