Yes it does seem within reach. Even just the base-en whisper modal with 74M params performs remarkably well on transcription (the large model has 1550M params!)

Yes it does seem within reach. Even just the base-en whisper modal with 74M params performs remarkably well on transcription (the large model has 1550M params!). Compare a base-en whisper transcription to a human transcription. This is the A Powerful Theory of Why the Far Right Is Thriving Across the Globe latest episode of the Ezra Klein Show, transcribed just now: 1. [whisper] https://modal-labs-whisper-pod-transcriber-fastapi-app.modal.run/#/episode/1582975/dc98538f886e48a0639f6b75894e1d4a https://modal-labs-whisper-pod-transcriber-fastapi-app.modal... 2. [human] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-pippa-norris.html?showTranscript=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas... (You can use the same app to transcribe other episodes on-demand and see the base-en model's quality)