SPEECH RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY - A CRITIQUE

This paper introduces the session on advanced speech recognition techn ology. The two papers comprising this session argue that current techn ology yields a performance that is only an order of magnitude in error rate away from human performance and that incremental improvements wi ll bring us to that desired level. I argue that, to the contrary, pres ent performance is far removed from human performance and a revolution in our thinking is required to achieve the goal. It is further assert ed that to bring about the revolution more effort should be expended o n basic research and less on trying to prematurely commercialize a def icient technology.