Sam Liang, Otter.ai CEO: AI captures everything
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
‘The power of AI is that it's able to capture everything, it’s able to try to interpret everyone objectively. Human beings are imperfect in terms of their capability to listen and understand. Everyone unconsciously, when they listen, they don't hear everything.’ Zoe Kleinman speaks to Sam Liang chief executive and co-founder of artificial intelligence transcription start-up Otter.ai Sam Liang was born in China and moved to the US in 1991. He received a PhD from Stanford University before joining Google, where he led the search engines location services. He co-founded California based Otter.ai in 2016. The start-up has evolved from a voice-to-text transcription service to offer AI-powered recordings of live events, meeting summaries and content searches. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Karim Beguir, boss of Africa’s biggest AI firm, the former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard and musical icon Ringo Starr. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Zoe Kleinman Producer: Farhana Haider Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Sam Liang. Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor via Getty)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Hi, I'm Zoe Kleinman, the BBC's technology editor, |
| 0:09.2 | and this is the interview from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:12.2 | the best conversations coming out of the BBC, |
| 0:15.2 | people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:19.3 | If you're not a little bit afraid, then you're not paying attention. |
| 0:24.0 | We have never seen a people so united. |
| 0:27.6 | Do not make that boat crossing. Do not make that journey. |
| 0:30.3 | Being born in America, feeling American, having people treat me like I'm not. |
| 0:34.4 | We're more popular than populism. |
| 0:37.7 | For this interview, I met Sam Liang, chief executive and co-founder of artificial intelligence |
| 0:43.5 | transcription startup Otter AI in our London studios. Sam Liang was born in China and moved to the |
| 0:50.5 | US in 1991. He received a PhD from Stanford University before joining Google, |
| 0:56.8 | where he led the search engines location services. He co-founded the California-based |
| 1:02.3 | Otter AI in 2016. The startup has evolved from a voice-to-text transcription service to offer |
| 1:09.1 | AI-powered recordings of live events, meeting summaries and content searches. |
| 1:14.5 | He tells us why he thinks we won't be typing as much anymore and how avatars could soon take our place in meetings. |
| 1:21.9 | He also explains why he wishes Otter had been around when he arrived in America in the early 90s. |
| 1:27.7 | You know, when I first went to America, my English was so bad. |
| 1:32.9 | People didn't understand me. I couldn't understand other people. |
| 1:37.2 | I wish I had Otter at that time to help me. |
| 1:40.9 | At that time, I literally carried a Sony Walk-a-Man with me in all the classes I |
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