Auto-generated _outlines_ ?!

Workbench
1

Otter.ai has started auto-generating outlines. I fell off my chair when I saw this. Has anyone else seen auto-generated outlines anywhere?

Over the weekend, on one of the calls—not sure if it was POD11 or Fwd Podcasters—I mentioned Otter.ai has started showing me an outline of what’s in my recordings.

I’m uploading MP3 files into Otter to have it generate transcripts. Then I’m using the synchronized playback in Otter to clean up the transcripts (on my way to writing summaries, takeaways, etc from recordings.)

This “beta” outline on the side appeared with the machine-generated transcript. It is not simply pulling out exactly what I’ve said… no idea how it does this.

Screenshot 2022-11-22 at 10.36.12
Screenshot 2022-11-22 at 10.36.121920×1187 128 KB

It’s clearly meant as an aid to hopping around within the transcript—clicking an outline item jumps me to that part.

There’s no affordance for exporting this outline. But, drag-select copy-and-paste works.

2

@craigconstantine

Sounds amazing! I’m using Descript but the Otter.ai outline feature has potential to aid me in selecting snippets for social media posts I create in Descript. Do you have a paid subscription to Otter.ai?

3

I do have a paid plan, yes. But their brief help document doesn’t say it’s only available in certain plans—it’s probably available to everyone.

4

Hey @craigconstantine
Haven’t seen that anywhere before, but that’s a cool feature that would certainly have practical value for many.

5

Impressive yes, but the literal question is: who cares?

I don’t see what AI is going to highlight that we can’t do better.

6

I was reading this piece this morning. Interesting perspective.