Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.”
But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.
Experts said that such fabrications are problematic because Whisper is being used in a slew of industries worldwide to translate and transcribe interviews, generate text in popular consumer technologies and create subtitles for videos.
More concerning, they said, is a rush by medical centers to utilize Whisper-based tools to transcribe patients’ consultations with doctors, despite OpenAI’ s warnings that the tool should not be used in “high-risk domains.”
A few months back my GP asked if they could use a transcription thing they were trialling during my consult.
He seemed shocked when I declined.
I just don’t understand why anyone would actually want that?
I want my doctor to listen to what I tell him, and I don’t really want what I say to be used for any other purpose, because no other purpose would be to my benefit.
Next week they’ll be adding to share “basic characteristics” about me with third party “wellness partners”.