Feature Request: Ability to turn off the appearance of automated transcripts
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also, if for some god forsaken reason you can’t remove it, then you NEED to set up an easy way of creators contacting you and telling you the identity of RSS feeds that they are not consenting to having processed by AI. Like, this is basic ethics. Come the fuck on.
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here’s a thought, guys. Maybe they’re being so weird about requests to even be able to turn it off because they’re being paid for the training data they’re giving to whatever obscene ai is running the auto transcriptions. I’d like a completely unambiguous statement as to whether or not this is the case. Your move, staff.
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Hi @vranacat,
Thanks for that feedback. I’ve shared your sentiment with our development and design team for their consideration as they continue to iterate on this new feature. I can assure you that we do not sell or share transcript data with third parties. Transcripts are generated solely to help listeners engage with the podcast content in a more accessible way, like reading along, searching or references moments from episodes.
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Relevant update: they deleted a post from me where I told them to stop telling us they had shared with the team and start telling us what the plan is. Really sketchy behavior.
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also, y’all keep claiming everyone was asking for this. Show us the data then. Show us the graph showing feature requests. Hell, tell us a number. How many people was it? Was it being asked for unprompted or was it a big box that popped up for some folks like “you sure would like automatic transcriptions, wouldn’t you?” The team has been saying a lot, but when you actually read it critically it comes down to three things
- We’ve “passed on”what you said
- why do you want to be able to turn it off anyways? That seems weird
- people have been asking for this. We won’t give you any proof of this, you’re gonna just have to believe us.
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just gonna drop this here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597825000172?via%3Dihub literally there is scientific evidence that when you start using generative AI people stop trusting you, so, you know, if you’re wondering why I and others are hostile, it’s because we don’t trust you anymore because of this unforced error.
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Okay, you need to ease up just a little instead of seeing conspiracies.
There is evidence of people asking for generated transcripts on this very forum. I’ve seen a thread where that is exactly what people asked for.
The primary issue at hand is that those of us who want it turned off should be able to turn it off. And in my view I don’t think it should be on every episode even when it’s on. Generate on demand would be the best model given that there are users who do want it.
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I add a vote for this request
@kuhlmannm Thanks for adding your vote!
Relevant update: they deleted a post from me where I told them to stop telling us they had shared with the team and start telling us what the plan is. Really sketchy behavior.
@vranacat That particular post was removed because it contained profanity. Please know that we hear you loud and clear, and there is no need for profanity to get your point across.
Okay, you need to ease up just a little instead of seeing conspiracies.
There is evidence of people asking for generated transcripts on this very forum. I’ve seen a thread where that is exactly what people asked for.
The primary issue at hand is that those of us who want it turned off should be able to turn it off. And in my view I don’t think it should be on every episode even when it’s on. Generate on demand would be the best model given that there are users who do want it.
@trevormobbsdae46d6a08 Thank you for giving us ideas on how to improve this. I hope we can introduce a solution soon that works better for most users.
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I’ll keep it short and sweet. The transcript feature is useless and annoying. And as such an unnecessary waste of energy providing it. Please let this be an opt-in feature or at least let me be able to switch it off. Many thanks!
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yeahhh… y’all saying you removed the post because I cursed it it makes absolutely no sense. I used the F word that isn’t relating to queer folk, which I’ve used in a number of my posts in this thread. If you’re gonna lie do it convincingly. As I said, this type of behavior is why you’ve lost my trust.
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Adding to the chorus here. I use the iOS app. The AI transcript is annoying and that there’s no way to just turn it off is ridiculous. This type of thing annoys me enough to get me to switch to a different app, though I imagine they’re all doing similarly annoying things with this. I will never, in my life, need to see semi-accurate text of the first few sentences of a podcast above a description of the episode.
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Hello @rbernardoni!
Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate it. I’ve forwarded your request to the team for future consideration. 😊
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@vranacat speaking as a queer person, I do not appreciate you attempting to justify swearing by reference to queer people.
The post that was removed did not have some deep secret insight that needed to be suppressed. In fact you’ve made the exact same point in your next post which hasn’t been removed.
I’ve said it once, now I’m going to say it again: you need to dial it back a notch and stop seeing conspiracy theories. We want a thread where we can say what we think of the product and ask for a feature (an off switch for AI), and nobody benefits from you trying to make it nasty and toxic.
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Long time user and plus member here. I want to add to the chorus of voices saying that not only should you be looking at a feature to disable generating transcripts, you should actually be going further and not including them by default on every episode of every podcast.
This is deeply unethical – you are feeding podcasts into a plagiarism machine that burns incredible amounts of energy by default. The fact you’ve also done this and show a preview, without considering that the beginning of most podcasts are adverts, tells me that you’ve rushed into this so you can join the AI hype train and you haven’t properly analysed the feature request. This has eroded my trust in you completely. Until I see an announcement that this feature is disabled by default, I will be seeking a new podcast app. Shame on you all.
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I just created an account here because I’m horrified by this addition to what was a cool app. The world gets worse every single day. Forcing this garbage down our throats and telling us it’s what we wanted? No option to turn it off? Come on. I’m looking for a new podcast player.
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Hi there, @logind82677bb06, and @rebelfortunatelyb84406bf29! Thank you for sharing your feedback about disabling the generated transcripts feature. I have added your votes to the existing feature request.
(The generated transcripts are a feature available to the Pocket Casts Plus and Patron subscribers. These may appear in select podcast episodes where the podcast creator has not yet provided a transcript in their podcast RSS feed.) -
@logind82677bb06 where was I justifying cursing by talking about queer folk? I was making it clear what language I was using, because as a pansexual trans woman I didn’t want people to be thinking I’d been using a word I consider morally reprehensible.
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anyways, some people obviously think I’m inflammatory. Good. Anyone who is working with generative AI should go home at night in tears crying about how mean the internet was to them. I will not apologize. If you are knowingly adding technology to your product that is driving the creators of your content out of business and is one of the main contributors to global warming than you don’t deserve a job. Anywhere. Ever again. If that means you can’t live then I guess y’all shoulda thought about why UBI is a good thing before joining the evil empire. That’s it. I’m done. I can’t make it any more clear. This is bs, since apparently I can’t curse in the messages y’all don’t like even though the same curse words are fine in others.
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