A start-up says its voice recognition tech beats Google and Amazon at reducing racial bias

CNBC October 26, 2021
Ryan Browne

Key Points

– Cambridge, England-based start-up Speechmatics said its voice recognition system had an overall accuracy rate of 83% for African American voices.

– That’s higher than Microsoft (73%), Amazon (69%), Google (69%), IBM (62%) and Apple (55%), according to figures from Stanford University.

– Researchers have become increasingly concerned about bias in the algorithms powering speech recognition services.

LONDON — A British speech recognition firm says its software performed better than that of major tech companies like Google and Amazon in understanding Black voices.

Speechmatics, which is based in Cambridge, England, said Tuesday that its system had an overall accuracy rate of 83% for African American voices.

That’s higher than Microsoft (73%), Amazon (69%), Google (69%), IBM (62%) and...

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