Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Here's a Quick Way to Instantly Have Closed Captions

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Two things are going on in this post. The first is the obvious: it's now possible to get live transcriptions (in English; support for other languages is awful) through Google Chrome. I assume it's the same technology I've been using for a while with my Pixel 4. We're almost to the point where live (English) transcription will be ubiquitous, which should help people everywhere. The second thing, though, is that this is one more service Google is offering through its own platform only. Now I would imagine Microsoft isn't far behind with its own transcriptions for edge, but it concerns me that independent browsers like Firefox won't have access to this capability. If it were just this I might not be so worried, but there's a wider range of integrations that are Chrome-only. This isn't just about platform dominance. These services also reflect what Google thinks is ethical, and I don't think we want Google to define what's ethical for ourselves or for the web.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 18, 2024 05:16 a.m.

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