Google Voice fails the Obama test

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Earlier tonight, we put Google Voice's voicemail transcription service to the test. The material: a recording of the most famous passage from the most famous speech made by the most famous man in America.

Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. (Source: Washington Post)

The text was read into Google Voice via a landline telephone by a clean, articulate American citizen with elevated diction, whose name is not Barack Hussein Obama.

Approximately two minutes later, Google Voice delivered the following transcript. Emphases mine.

well hi jay to them tonight there's not a liberal america and i can servers of america there is the united states of america there's not a black america and white america and let you know i'm erica an agent america there is the united states of america

Alright, actually, not so bad. But let it be known, we played an audio clip of Obama himself delivering the speech into our telephone two times, and in each case Google Voice failed to generate any transcription at all.

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