8mo ago

Hospitals adopt error-prone AI transcription tools despite warnings

arstechnica.com

OpenAI’s Whisper tool may add fake text to medical transcripts, investigation finds.

10 comments

Regular transcription software is finally respectable (the early days of dragon naturally speaking were dark indeed). Who thought tossing AI in the mix was a good idea?
I work in judicial tech and have heard questions of using AI transcription tools. I didn't believe AI should be used in this kind of high risk area. The ones asking if AI is a good fit for court transcripts can be forgiven because all they see is the hype, but if the ones responding greenlight a project like that there will be some incredibly embarrassing moments.
My other concern is that the court would have to run the service locally. There are situations where a victim's name or other information is redacted. That information should not be on an Open AI server and should not be regurgitated back out when the AI misbehaves.
- Don't court stenographers basically use tailored voice models and voice to text transcription already?
  
  I don't get too technical with the court reporter software. They have their own license and receive direct support from their vendor. What I have seen is that there is an interpreting layer between the stenographer machine and the software, literally called magic by the vendor, that is a bit like predictive text. In this situation, the stenographer is actively recording and interpreting the results.
Private hospitals care about only one thing: profit. These error-ridden tools serve that purpose.
God I hope this isn't the AI plan that the NHS adopts
- This is the AI plan every healthcare entity worldwide will adopt.
  No joke. They are desperate for shit like this.
Errors and Hallucinations are definitely serious concerns, but my biggest concern would be privacy. If my GP is using AI, I no longer see my medical information as private, and that is unacceptable.
If anyone needs to know the state of AI transcription, just turn on closed captioning for your local tv channel. It's atrocious and I am sorry that people who need closed captioning are subjected to that.
Years ago, I worked in a tech role at a medical transcription company. It hadn't occurred to me that AI would render their jobs irrelevant. This used to be an area where women in particular could make decent money after a bit of training, and there were opportunities for advancement into medical coding and even hospital administration.
I worked with some good people. Hope they landed on their feet.

10 comments