Artificial Intelligence To Transcribe Parliamentary Speeches

Parliament could be using artificial intelligence to transcribe speeches within two years’ time.

In a statement to the press, the University of Reykjavík announced today that representatives of parliament and the Technology and Engineering Department of the university signed an agreement yesterday to increase the proliferation of open source software in parliament that will act as a transcriber.

The project will be two years in the making, as the software is trained to take spoken dictation with a fine-tuned accuracy. It will then later be incorporated into parliament’s computer systems, where it will soon thereafter begin its transcription work.

Jón Guðnason, lecturer and Program Manager of Advanced Engineering at the University of Reykjavík, says that the project is a part of a larger effort to keep Icelandic a living language.

“We have been working for some time on projects involving artificial intelligence and language technology, such as in cooperation with Google, with the aim that computers in the future understand Icelandic,” he said. “The development of transcription tech for parliament is an important step in the development of language systems for Icelandic in general.”

In the photo (from left to right): Jón Guðnason; Guðrún Arnbjörg Sævarsdóttir, President of the Technology and Engineering Department of the University of Reykjavík; Helgi Bernódusson, parliament’s office manager and Ari Kristinn Jónsson, rector of the University of Reykjavík.