Mac microphone inadvertently transcribed conversation

Help
1

I conducted an interview using Zoom this morning, and as always I had Obsidian open for my questions and notes I use while discussing the topic (ironically about privacy and AI).

I noticed that while I was speaking Obsidian was transcribing (pretty terribly) our conversation.

I am perplexed. I use a Macbook Pro M1 and am on Ventura. Under MacOS settings, Obsidian does not have access to the microphone. Under Obsidian settings, audio recorder is turned off.

Does someone have an idea of what went on? Thank you.

2

We don’t have this feature in Obsidian. Perhaps it is part of the new MacOS and we just “received” the text after it was transcribed by the OS.

3

But how is it that Obsidian was able to “receive” or transcribe the conversation if the app was not granted permission access to the microphone under the general MacOS settings. I also turned off audio recorder plugin under Obsidian’s core plugins section. I am still at a loss.

As an aside, Ventura MacOS is not the latest version of MacOS.

4

If this is coming from the OS, obsidian doesn’t need permission to access the microphone. Obsidian is not doing the listening, the OS is using the microphone, transcribe and then returning the text to the app.

Another option is that you may have a third party plugin that does this (listen and transcribe).

5

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