The findings, published on March 23 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were based on tests of systems developed by Amazon, IBM, Google, Microsoft and Apple. For people who can’t use their hands, moreover, speech recognition is crucial for accessing computers.
Courts use the technology to help transcribe hearings. Many companies now screen job applicants with automated online interviews that employ speech recognition. If not addressed, this translational imbalance could have serious consequences for people’s careers and even lives. While the study focused exclusively on disparities between black and white Americans, similar problems could affect people who speak with regional and non-native-English accents, the researchers concluded. Tests by Stanford researchers show that five leading speech recognition programs make twice as many errors with African American speakers as with whites.
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