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Emerging Speech-to-Text Services: Circleback's Unique Approach

2024-11-26

As the landscape of startups offering speech-to-text services continues to expand, meeting transcripts have emerged as a common offering. Various tools now provide AI assistants that can either join meetings or capture system audio to transcribe and summarize them. One such company is Circleback, backed by Y Combinator, which aims to stand out by offering detailed notes and action items along with the ability to automatically gain insights from transcripts.

Revolutionize Meeting Management with Circleback

Company Founding and Initial Focus

Circleback was founded in 2023 by Ali Haghani, a former Stripe engineer, and Kevin Jacyna, a former Tableau engineer. They initially built a meeting tool that served as a searchable knowledge base, initially providing only notes and action items to participants. As Haghani explained to TechCrunch, they wanted to go in a different direction from tools like Otter and Fireflies. Instead of making users go back and read transcripts, they aimed to gather all the important information from a meeting in one place.Over time, the company focused on developing the tech stack to extract the best knowledge from meetings. Taking good notes became a key growth engine as people started using the tool for this purpose.

Product Features and Functionality

Circleback is a cross-platform app available on Mac, Windows, and the web. Users can have the assistant join their meetings or record audio from their systems. After each meeting, detailed notes with different sections and key points mentioned by speakers are provided. If desired, users can also access the transcript and recording. The tool also generates action items for all participants.However, Haghani acknowledged that general notes didn't suit the needs of all customers. So, they rolled out an automation feature that extracts certain insights from every meeting based on the user's prompt. Users can input information like customer details and add it to a Notion database or CRM. Creating automations is similar to making IFTTT recipes or Siri Shortcuts.The overarching idea is to enable users to obtain different kinds of knowledge and insights from the same meeting and then search across all meetings over time. Competitors like Read AI, which raised $50 million in Series B funding, are also trying to create tools to capture information across different surfaces to build an overarching knowledge base.

Positioning and Future Plans

Circleback has grown organically, with thousands of paying customers using its product. It is cashflow positive, and despite heavy investor interest, the founders didn't raise more money to avoid diluting their stake.Haghani recognizes the competition in the meeting intelligence space but believes the startup can find a good product-market fit. He emphasized that the conversational data is a gold mine, and by adding integrations, they can provide more trustworthy sources of data and knowledge for customers.The company is also considering allowing users to create templates for automation and share them with the community. Additionally, it plans to release iOS and Android apps soon to capture in-person conversations.

Bluesky has emerged as a significant player in the social media landscape. While it may not be directly training AI systems on user content like some other networks, there are concerns about third-party actions. A report by 404 Media revealed that a machine learning librarian at AI firm Hugging Face accessed 1 million public posts from Bluesky via its Firehose API for research and pushed the data to a public repository. This incident sparked controversy and serves as a reminder that anything posted publicly on Bluesky is indeed public. Bluesky is now looking at ways to enable users to communicate their consent preferences externally, but it's up to third parties to respect those preferences. The company has stated that it won't be able to enforce this consent outside of its systems and is having ongoing conversations with engineers and lawyers to provide more updates soon. As Bluesky gains popularity and rises to the forefront of global consciousness, it will face the same level of scrutiny as other major social platforms. This situation highlights the importance of users being aware of the implications of posting publicly and the need for clear communication and enforcement of consent preferences.

"Bluesky's Public Posting Controversy and Future"

Bluesky's API and Data Access

Bluesky's Firehose API has become a point of contention as it allowed a machine learning librarian from Hugging Face to access 1 million public posts. This action raised questions about data privacy and the potential misuse of user content. The fact that the data was pushed to a public repository further exacerbated the situation, leading to significant controversy. It shows that even though Bluesky may not be directly involved in training AI systems on user content, its API can be a gateway for such activities. This incident serves as a wake-up call for both Bluesky and its users to reevaluate the security and privacy measures associated with the platform.

Bluesky has since taken steps to address these concerns by looking at ways to enable users to communicate their consent preferences externally. This is an important step in ensuring that users have more control over their data and how it is used. However, it remains to be seen how effective these measures will be in preventing third-party access and misuse of user content. The ongoing conversations with engineers and lawyers indicate that Bluesky is committed to finding solutions to these issues, but it will take time and effort to implement and enforce them.

Bluesky's Popularity and Scrutiny

Bluesky's rapid rise in popularity has brought it to the forefront of the global consciousness. As a result, it is now subject to the same level of scrutiny as other major social platforms. This means that Bluesky will need to meet the same standards and expectations when it comes to data privacy, security, and user consent. The company's commitment to enabling users to communicate their consent preferences externally is a positive step in this direction, but it will need to go further to address the concerns of its users and the wider public.

Bluesky's popularity also presents an opportunity for it to set new standards in the social media industry. By addressing the issues surrounding data privacy and user consent early on, it can build trust with its users and differentiate itself from other platforms. However, it will need to be proactive in its efforts and continuously monitor and address any potential risks or issues that arise. Only by doing so can Bluesky ensure its long-term success and sustainability in the highly competitive social media market.

User Awareness and Consent

The Bluesky incident highlights the importance of user awareness when it comes to posting publicly on social media platforms. Users need to be aware that anything they post can be accessed and used by third parties, even if the platform itself is not directly involved. This means that users should be careful about what they share and consider the potential consequences of their actions.

Bluesky's efforts to enable users to communicate their consent preferences externally are a step in the right direction. By giving users more control over their data, they can make more informed decisions about what they share and with whom. However, it's up to users to take advantage of these features and actively manage their privacy settings. Users should also be vigilant about the apps and services they connect to Bluesky and ensure that they are trustworthy and respect their privacy.

India-based audio platform Pocket FM boasts an extensive library of over 200,000 hours of content. Yet, its CEO, Rohan Nayak, recognizes the platform's potential for further expansion. Nayak believes there is room to enhance the original content and diversify the library across various genres and sub-genres. The key lies in leveraging AI tools to streamline audio production, refine writing strategies, and adapt stories for different regions.

Partnership with ElevenLabs: Transforming Production

Pocket FM has formed an outstanding partnership with ElevenLabs, enabling the conversion of writings into audio series. This collaboration has led to a remarkable 5 times increase in production speed and a 30 times reduction in cost compared to professionally generated audio series. Nayak shared, "We have thoroughly tested how these AI adaptations perform in different markets, and the results have been highly encouraging. Although we are still fine-tuning our models to address errors, we are confident that the technology is now suitable for use in show production."

Adapting Stories for Different Regions

One of the AI tools Pocket FM is exploring focuses on adapting stories for different regions. The company has trained in-house models that go beyond mere translation, carefully handling cultural nuances during the conversion process from one region to another. Nayak emphasized the challenge of solving the hallucination problem in stories spanning hundreds of episodes. The company has had to address the limitations of open-source model context windows and build maps of relationships between different entities to ensure character consistency.

Creative Assistant for Writers

Another tool being tested by the company serves as a creative assistant for writers. It helps them generate alternative storylines and provides ideas for plots. Additionally, the company plans to incorporate insights from its historical data into the tool to guide writers on what works best on the platform. Nayak mentioned that although this tool is in its early stages, the company aims to empower solo writers by giving them the essence of a writer's room. This allows writers to brainstorm freely without sacrificing creative control, which is the core concept behind this writing assistant.

Building a Blockbuster Engine

Pocket FM is investing in creating a blockbuster engine that will draw on insights from the platform to identify hit shows. The end goal is to scale the catalog by producing content independently and collaborating with a network of writers. However, to achieve significant growth and popularity, the company must create blockbuster shows. Nayak stated, "Blockbusters are the driving force behind any content platform. While we have a strong user-generated content base, identifying true blockbusters remains a challenging task."Pocket FM has achieved remarkable results with its AI deployment. With the help of AI in voice creation, the platform now hosts over 40,000 series. Additionally, the company has generated $3 million in revenue from these efforts. Overall, in financial year 2024, the platform achieved a revenue of $127 million.The most significant challenge for the company is finding the right balance between using AI to assist creatives and ensuring the quality of content. There is a risk that AI could be used to expedite content production at the expense of quality, resulting in a flood of mediocre content that makes it difficult for algorithms to highlight good shows.Puneet Sharma, an India-based writer and lyricist, highlighted the importance for artists to prove their authenticity in a world of formulaic work. He added that AI tools can be beneficial for generating ideas and exploring different styles but may also lead to the loss of the learning process through failure.Nayak stated that some of the company's writers and creatives already use AI tools, and the goal is to provide tools with context and integration into the platform.Pocket FM has secured $197 million in funding through multiple rounds, with backers such as Lightspeed Ventures, Tencent, and Times Internet. The company competes with other content players on multiple fronts, including Audible, Omidyar Network-backed Pratilipi, and Google-backed Kuku FM.