Monthly Archives: November 2010

Computer pareidolia

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My sister Pamela’s pants speed-dialled me an hour ago, and usual when
I’m taking a call from someone’s pants, I was treated to a voicemail
of three minutes of almost complete silence. But only /almost/
complete, because this is what Google Voice thought she said:

“And bye bye bye hello, well or hello. So. Hello. Please, yo Hello.
Hello World. Hello, and it’s babies. Bye please. I don’t know. Hey.
Hello, bye Yeah, hey. Hey, things. Hey, ohh it no Yeah, and alright.
Hello. Hey, or bye please. Hey, hey, hey, bye bye hey, hey. Hello,
hello, the cooler right ohh okay.”

I love Google Voice, rely on it daily, but this is the single worst
transcribed message I have ever seen. I think we have just witnessed
the birth of computer pareidolia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia