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Google Opens Access To Its Speech Recognition API, Going Head To Head With Nuance (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google is planning to compete with Nuance and other voice recognition companies head on by opening up its speech recognition API to third-party developers. To attract developers, the app will be free at launch with pricing to be introduced at a later date. The company formally announced the service today during its NEXT cloud user conference, where it also unveiled a raft of other machine learning developments and updates, most significantly a new machine learning platform. The Google Cloud Speech API, which will cover over 80 languages and will work with any application in real-time streaming or batch mode, will offer full set of APIs for applications to "see, hear and translate," Google says. It is based on the same neural network tech that powers Google's voice search in the Google app and voice typing in Google's Keyboard. Google's move will have a large impact on the industry as a whole -- and particularly on Nuance, the company long thought of as offering the best voice recognition capabilities in the business, and most certainly the biggest offering such services.
if they were to announce the future pricing now it might even be worth trying.
Keep in mind that the VR API used to be open, then they closed it, screwing anyone using it. Now they are opening it up again "for free", but it will supposedly be yanked away yet again, when/if they finally decide on the pricing. Google has a terrible record of supporting their products. You would be foolish to rely on this API if you have any alternative.