SaskTel Voice Mail to Text Service: An Eerie Test

Tech guru Tod Maffin asked if anyone in Saskatchewan would help him try out this new service. SaskTel has a free 30 day preview of their voice mail to text service (normally 40 cents a voice mail or ten dollars per month.) You're phone voice mails are transcribed and sent to you as a text message (SaskTel phones only) or an email. The question is, how do they do it? So I tested it out with eerie results...

First, here is the test voice mail I left for myself.

Listen here (QuickTime required.)

And this is the text I was emailed ten minutes later:

Hon it's James calling. This is a message for Tod Mason, Tod Mason. That's Tod with one D. If you are transcribing. Is this a real transcribing? If it is put 3 slashes now, ///(?). Forward slashes. I don't care, back slash. Surprisely(?) 3 forward slashes indicates this is a real person transcribing this and if how much do they get paid for this. You got a percentage of that 40 cents of message? Put 2 slashes now, //(?). You get paid ___///(?). If you are happy with what you are doing, you didn't fail cooking school, put ////(?) slashes now. Testing testing testing, I like to talk about myself. I am James Woodincamp(?), ha, like to see you Woodincamp(?). But that's not bad. Anyway bye for now. - spoken through SpinVox.

That's a cut 'n' paste above. I didn't monkey with the slashes. Obviously, the SaskTel technology has artificial intelligence or they are sending the files to Bangladesh for transcribing by humans. Either way, I'm a little freaked out.

UPDATE: here is the link for you to try the service for free for one month, but remember to deactivate online or they'll start charging you 30 days later.