Speech recognition
Speech recognition turns spoken words into text. Modern systems use deep learning and handle many languages and accents, though accuracy still drops with background noise, strong accents and specialised vocabulary.
In one line, for a 12-year-old
Speech recognition is the AI typing what you say.
An example
Dictating a text message, or live captions on a video call.
Why it matters to people
Captions make meetings and video accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Recording others' voices still needs their knowledge, and in many settings their consent.