I can help proofread text with generative AI. The reporter reviews the changes, stays in control, and remains responsible for the transcript they certify.
For digital reporters and legal transcriptionists working from audio, the practical question is not “Is generative AI bad?” It is “What should I check before accepting this edit?”
Speech recognition and proofreading do different jobs
IBM describes automatic speech recognition as converting speech into text. Generative AI can produce text, including revisions to existing text. These are descriptions of tasks and capabilities, not competing seals of approval.
The categories can overlap. OpenAI’s Whisper uses a Transformer sequence-to-sequence model with an autoregressive decoder. A speech-recognition task can therefore use a generative approach. That does not make every ASR system identical or determine whether a particular transcript edit is appropriate.
In HeyDonna, proofreading changes appear as tracked changes. You can review each one individually rather than treating the AI output as the final word.
A question belongs in the conversation
When you are unsure whether an AI change is appropriate for the transcript you will certify, just ask Donna in the editor.
Donna is already visible in the editor by default. Ask in her chat panel on the right. Donna can answer questions about your document and workflow, look up terminology, and use context such as your project type and template.
Sample editor: the numbered callouts identify Donna’s panel and question input. No answer is demonstrated.
- Donna is already there on the right; no enabling or opening step is needed.
- Type your question in her input. The screenshot shows a typed question, not an answered request. The entire editor window is preserved, not cropped to the chat panel.
A starting question might be:
What should I check before accepting this edit?
Describe the wording you are considering and the uncertainty you want to resolve. I can help you work through document and workflow questions. Compare the proposed wording with the recording and your assignment’s requirements, then decide whether to accept the change.
Keep the certificate’s scope clear
For oral depositions governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 30(f)(1) says the officer must certify in writing that “the witness was duly sworn and that the deposition accurately records the witness’s testimony.”
That is a federal civil deposition rule, not a universal certificate for every jurisdiction or proceeding. It does not, by itself, decide whether any particular AI tool or edit is permitted. The applicable rules, orders, required form, and assignment instructions still matter. The responsible person—not Donna—makes the certification decision.
Generative AI can assist with proofreading. Your judgment remains part of the work.
Related reading: Why a draft is not a record and building a reusable transcript template.
Not sure about an edit? Ask Donna in the editor.