Auto-transcription robots may have found hidden meaning in Melania Trump’s speech
Opinions are split on Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican national convention. Obvious sloppy plagiarism aside, many agree that she performed way beyond expectations, particularly given that English is not her first language, while haters are wont to say it was all a bit robotic.
If it was genuinely robotic, you’d think that transcription robots would be able to figure out what Melania Trump was saying in her RNC speech on Tuesday. Judging by the transcription of a clip spat out by ABC’s auto-transcription software, however, her Slovenian accent threw the algorithm for a loop. Or are they simply trying to unearth the hidden messages within? Can the robots know the unknowable about what Melania was trying to tell us in a speech that may have been a thickly-veneered cry for help? Let’s explore.
When Melania said, “I have been with Donald for 18 years,” the ABC transcript said: “I haven’t seen Madonna for eighteen years.” We can’t confirm the latter statement. Maybe the robot knows something we don’t? Donald displayed a mild spike of Madonna-related obsession back in 2012, but it’s unclear when, if at all, he attended a concert, and if Melania accompanied him. Perhaps the reports about said concert came to the Trump household second-hand. Do the TVs in the Trump household ever switch off Fox News? Has Madonna ever been on Fox News? There are many unanswered questions and a lot to be investigated here before we can say definitively if this apparent mistranslation is a bug or a feature. Maybe the robot already did the background work, maybe it didn’t. We simply can’t know.
Melania said: “He never had a hidden agenda when it comes to his patriotism,” but the robot claimed she said: “He never had an accident and that when he comes to he speak to tease him.” This is a robot clearly attempting to insinuate incontinence on Mr Trump’s part. Maybe the robot thinks the lady doth protest too much? The Donald is known to sue over leaks, so incontinence would be considered an enormous indignity for such a titan. It’s a bold claim, if indeed that was the intention.
When Melania says “Donald J. Trump is ready to serve and lead this country as the next president of the United States,” the transcription bot says: “Madonna tapes from he’s ready to serve any leads me these crime scene as the next president of the United States.”
This last one is almost poetic, from the way the robot supplants Madonna’s early work as delivered on cassette in place of Donald’s name–imagery conjuring notions of self-loathing and anachronism–to how it subtly suggests that Mrs. Trump thinks Donald is putting her life and that of the rest of America, in danger by inviting her into a “crime scene” as he runs for president. It seems … almost too human a work to attribute to a robot.
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