User-centered Visualizations of Transcription Uncertainty in AI-generated Subtitles of News Broadcast

Abstract: AI-generated subtitles have recently started to automate the process of subtitling with automatic speech recognition. However, people may not perceive that the transcription is based on probabilities and may entail errors. For news that is broadcast live may this be controversial and cause misinterpretation. A user-centered design approach was performed investigating three possible solutions towards visualizing transcription uncertainties in real-time presentation. Based on the user needs, one proposed solution was used in a qualitative comparison with AI- generated subtitles without visualizations. The results suggest that visualization of uncertainties support users’ interpretation of AI-generated subtitles and helps to identify possible errors. However, it does not improve the transcription intelligibility. The result also suggests that unnoticed transcription errors during news broadcast is perceived as critical and decrease trust towards the news. Uncertainty visualizations may increase trust and prevent the risk of misinterpretation with important information.