Artificial intelligence is coming to Parliament: 'It won't work in debates, humans are needed for rowdy sessions'
Work continues on the Transcript Information System Project, which is being carried out in partnership between TÜBİTAK and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM). Once the project is launched, artificial intelligence will recognize the voices of members of parliament and transcribe their speeches.
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Head of the TBMM Transcript Services Department Muhsine Çevik stated that if the Transcript Information System Project, which the TBMM is conducting with TÜBİTAK, is implemented, artificial intelligence will be able to recognize an MP's voice and transcribe their speech.
Stating that they have been working on the project for approximately 1.5 years, Çevik said:
"In the Transcript Information System, after a speaker finishes, our stenographers will now work like expert stenographers, checking the transcribed text. Our checks are always very extensive. Then our expert will check it on the computer, followed by our deputy head. Our staff will no longer perform the merging process. It will find the common word and merge it. This system is the Transcript Information System Project. The artificial intelligence here will transcribe the speech and recognize the speaker. When one of our MPs gets up to speak, it will identify their name, recognize their voice, and continue to write their speech. We will carry out all the other work we do with this system as well, God willing."
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN CONTENTIOUS SESSIONS?
Regarding whether artificial intelligence will be able to perceive speeches during contentious sessions, Çevik said, "Artificial intelligence will not be able to perceive debates. If there is a fight, we cannot use the normal audio recording at all because the voices overlap; it is impossible to distinguish them. That is when the stenographer comes into play. Even with artificial intelligence, there will always be a need for a stenographer because it cannot distinguish those voices in a rowdy session and cannot know who said what. A human is needed here."
Noting that a course was opened in 1928 with a letter from Atatürk foreseeing the training of stenographers, Çevik reminded that stenographers began working in parliament in 1930 and have been serving in parliament ever since. Stating that a stenographer is trained in one year today, Çevik emphasized that to become a stenographer, graduates of university departments such as law, economics, or business administration must receive a sufficient score in the KPSS (Public Personnel Selection Examination) and then pass an interview. Çevik explained that those who pass the interview are then enrolled in the course. Sharing the information that stenography training is provided only by the TBMM, Çevik noted that stenographers in Turkey work only in Parliament.
Çevik said that a total of 99 stenographers work in the TBMM as the Transcript Services Department, 23 of whom work as expert stenographers, and that the work is carried out with 4 deputy heads and one head.