Inside APX: How AI captures spoken word and improves podcast search
In the series Inside APX, readers get to know promising start-ups from the program. The first in the series is the young company Tucan, which develops artificial intelligence for speech recognition and produces the podcast Driven Minds with the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer.
Porsche is expanding its digital ecosystem with its accelerator program and very early-stage investor, APX. The aim is to find promising and innovative business models and bring about successful collaborations. This is why the search for early-stage companies and founders is particularly important.
One of these companies is Tucan founded by Michael Schramm, Lukas Rintelen and Florian Polak. The original business model was a new type of podcast platform called “RecTag”, which the founding team still runs today. RecTag’s goal is to make it easier for podcasters to be found and heard. Conversely, listeners can discover stories and people based on the actual content of the podcast and not just the title or description of the episode. The artificial intelligence (AI) behind this idea enables content-based search beyond the typical podcast charts.
A lot has changed since then, even the core product. The AI used there gave rise to a new idea that the team is now focusing on. The software makes it possible to analyze and transcribe spoken conversations in a short time. The user can receive automatic transcripts, summaries, and notes within minutes and can focus their attention on the conversation. The automatic speaker analysis makes it possible to recognize all participants in the conversation and shows who spoke about what topic and to what extent. Unlike common solutions, Tucan trains a separate speech model for each user. Over time, this enables error-free, automatic transcriptions. On top of that, Tucan was specially developed for local accents and dialects.
Joint podcast with Porsche: Driven Minds
Even though the business model has changed, the young company has not cut its ties with podcasting. The start-up produces a corporate podcast with Porsche called Driven Minds. Oliver Hoffmann, Director of Marketing Communications at Porsche, played a decisive role in realizing this project. As a ‘Corporate Champion’, a mentor assigned to every APX company, he supported Tucan with his knowledge and network.
In Driven Minds, international media and music stars, such as Arianna Huffington, Tyra Banks, Brian Grazer, and Lykke Li, among others, give us a glimpse into their private lives. They share what motivates them, how obstacles offer the opportunity for improvement, and what they believe it takes to achieve both professional and personal success.
Driven Minds offers the Tucan team the opportunity to test and develop their product. The start-up’s goal is to expand the software beyond podcasts. The service can be used wherever people speak, e.g., in interviews or business meetings. Additionally, the start-up gains insights into the podcast market and learns what needs to be considered in production and coordination.
Driven Minds can be found across many podcast platforms, including Apple Podcast and Spotify.
