BROADCASTS.com

b'Sam Liang is one of the key innovators behind the scenes in Silicon Valley. He is one of the founders of Google\'s location services and is on the Google Blue Dot patent. He is the co-founder and CEO of Otter.ai, which specializes in live transcription services.
\\n
\\nSam Liang\'s Background
\\nSam Liang earned his Ph.D. at Stanford in hopes of becoming a professor. While in school, he met many smart people working on startups, which influenced him to go that route. He went on to work at Cisco, worked on a startup, and then joined Google for four years.
\\nWhile at Google, Sam and his team created the Blue Dot and started the Google location server project, which became location services. While we use these services daily, we often don\'t think of the behind the scenes work that goes into them. When the technology first started coming out, everyone was so amazed by it. Now the market has matured to the point where it is an intrinsic part of daily life.
\\nWhile Google maps have gone through this process, AI and speech recognition is currently going through it. Even though voice recognition and automatic transcription systems have advanced a lot, there is still more to come.
\\nThe Birth of Otter.ai
\\nWhen using Alexa or Siri, you ask a question or give a command, often taking little time. When using Zoom or similar platforms, there are multiple speakers engaged in a potentially more extended interaction. People often have different accents, speaking styles, and background noises. The technology doesn\'t handle complicated conversations effectively.
\\nIn 2010, we started transcribing the Killer Innovations show using an offshore transcribing service. Even though a human was transcribing it, they couldn\'t get it right. Human involved transcribing required a lot of effort to go back and clean up the mistakes on my team\'s part. After a while, we stopped using this service for the show.
\\nFor Sam, he realized this was a problem when he always forgot things from meetings. Eventually, he brought a team together to find a solution to this problem. He surveyed the top transcribing technologies of the day and was disappointed by their low quality. \\xa0The survey opened up an opportunity for his team to create something better.
\\nTranscribing your Brainstorm
\\nI am a customer of Otter.ai and am impressed with the transcription accuracy no matter the environment. I use it while in my studio as well as on my phone for capturing notes. Otter offers a system that adapts to people\'s natural speaking styles automatically. It works in the background no matter how many people are speaking or the speed of their words. Many people use Otter when they are in restaurants, driving a car, or walking their dog. Otter.ai has created a new feature that allows the software to hook up to Zoom when used automatically.
\\nWhen using the software, you can highlight important things that were said to remember them. For those wanting to skip meetings but still get the information, Otter offers that chance as well. The software also identifies the speakers at the end of the session to connect them with what was said. Otter has released a product that allows people to experience it for free. There are also pro and business versions of Otter for those interested in regular usage.
\\nMoving forward
\\nFrom what I\'ve observed, people these days are hesitant when being recorded. As being recorded becomes more common,'