We’ve launched a new feature for Micro.blog Premium customers: automatic podcast episode transcripts, powered by OpenAI’s Whisper model. I’m excited about this because it’s one of the more practical, time-saving solutions coming out of the rise of AI. The automatic transcripts are so accurate they can be used as-is, or edited by hand as you have time.
I thought it would be clever to ask ChatGPT to write a blog post announcing this feature. You can see the result here. But I threw it out because I like writing my own blog posts!
At Micro.blog, we don’t usually reach for automation first. We curate the Discover section by hand, looking for posts that will provide a snapshot of activity on Micro.blog to help you find new people to follow. We don’t have trends and don’t have public likes or retweets. AI is going to reshuffle many tech products, but we’re never going to have an AI-driven algorithmic timeline. AI is a tool that we’ll only use when there is real benefit that aligns with our principles.
The new transcripts feature is available to anyone hosting their podcast on Micro.blog. When you upload a new MP3, Micro.blog will process it to generate a transcript. You can then edit the transcript or link it from your podcast page.
There is also a new Micro.blog plug-in to add a list of transcripts to your blog, as well as control options to disable transcription and link to the transcript from blog post. Search in the plug-in directory for “Transcripts” to install it.
There’s no extra charge for any of this. Micro.blog Premium has always been $10/month and it will continue to be priced that way. It includes podcast hosting and also email newsletters, bookmark archiving, web page highlights, and much more. We think it’s a great value.
Alex Claman 
Sven Dahlstrand 
Vincent 
Manton Reece @timapple Thanks! No way to do that at the moment, although you could copy/paste the transcript into the post pretty easily. By default we include a "Transcript" link to connect the audio post and transcript post.
Simon Woods This is excellent. Such a great addition to the Premium plan. 🙌
I also liked the random thought you mentioned in a reply recently, that Wavelength might get folded into the main app. Would certainly make sense considering this advanced feature is now part of the main app.
Martin Hähnel That makes me want to pick up my PuppyCasts again. Is it possible to get transcripts for older episodes?
Manton Reece @matti Right now it only generates a transcript when the MP3 is first uploaded, and only one episode per day. We may be able to expand it in the future. There's an extra cost for us so want to keep an eye on usage first.
Martin Hähnel Understood. A nice addition either way. 👍
Jean MacDonald The ChatGPT version made me smile. I dont think I’ve seen the phrases “boost your reach” or “improve SEO” in anything you’ve written. 😏
Sanna Lund Manton Reece @camacho Thank you! Good luck. 🙂
Johan Larsson sweet! 🎉
Does it work in any languages other than English? 🇸🇪
Manton Reece @kottkrig Yes! It supports dozens of languages including Swedish.
Johan Larsson fabulous! It might very well push me over to Premium just to try it out. 😊
rom is this done on Mb or sent to OpenAI?
Manton Reece @rom It is sent to OpenAI. They don’t use the data to train models and delete it within a month, so I feel comfortable outsourcing this part. I added it to our privacy policy too.
Pratik Nice. The AI-generated blog post reads like such a PR post which I guess is what it is trained on.
rom interesting. I use Aiko, an iOS app that does this on device, AFAIK. Wondering if that would scale for Mb.
Manton Reece @rom I’ve used Aiko too. It’s great. I evaluated a few options and decided (for now) I don’t want to set up new servers for this.
rom