This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub.
Screenshot of web application used to upload audio files and view the generated results.
Overview
Imagine a world where podcast synopsis are generated instantly, capturing the essence of each episode, and enticing potential listeners with engaging language. Not only that, but the solution also provides options for taglines, generates Search Engine Optimized (SEO) keywords, and even translates generated content into multiple languages all in one go! First showcased at National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2023, this once far-fetched dream is now a reality, thanks to the remarkable capabilities of Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)—a technology that is transforming many industries with its exceptional human-like natural language processing abilities.
The process of podcast synopsis generation traditionally has required creators, producers, and/or writers to understand the content, and manually write the synopsis, summarizing the salient points and highlights of an episode. This approach is time-consuming and may involve brainstorming sessions that discuss the main themes, and refine the text until it effectively conveys the podcast's message and tone (e.g., a comedic podcast may feature humorous language or hyperbole in its summaries).
This article illustrates how to automate a large part of this manual and time-consuming process using the portfolio of services provided by Azure Cognitive Services; specifically Azure Speech Service and Azure OpenAI which are used for transcribing and generating the synopsis, taglines, SEO keywords and translation. Incorporating AI to automate this manual process does not eliminate the role of human creativity or the importance of human involvement. Instead, it enables a significant acceleration in time-to-market by harnessing the power of AI. The final validation and approval of content remains the responsibility of human specialists before publishing.
Architecture
This solution exposes Azure Speech Service and the Azure OpenAI Service functionality using a React web application. Azure Functions orchestrate:
- Uploading the audio files to Azure Blob Storage.
- Leveraging Azure Speech Service to transcribe the audio files and storing the results to Azure Storage.
- Using Azure OpenAI API to:
- Generate synopsis
- Generate taglines
- Generate SEO keywords
- Generate translations for the synopsis
Demonstration
Best Practices for Optimizing Podcast Synopsis Generation
Responses from GPT are sensitive to the design of the prompt. A prompt that explicitly describes the context and the desired outcome will generally lead to the desired response. Information that could be included in the prompt are genre, desired style, tone and context of the podcast. An interview of a serious topic may demand a formal synopsis, while a comedy podcast may be more appropriate with a synopsis that tickles your humor. Some exemplar prompts are:
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“Add a question to arouse curiosity”
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“Be suspenseful, enough to tickle curiosity, but do not expose the content”
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“Be humorous”
Be creative and experiment with different prompt designs and be delighted with the responses. More examples response can be found in Azure OpenAI Samples repository.
Try it out
The code and technical documentation have been made public in this GitHub repo.
Conclusion
This solution can reshape the podcast production synopsis generation workflow, from dramatically improving content generation workflow to delivering unparalleled listener experiences in matter of seconds. There is no doubt that the media industry, and many others, will evolve with the fast and vast advancement of AI.
Acknowledgments
This work is not possible without the contributions of media industry experts Andy Beach, Leonard Arul, Simon Powell, and the extended team of Tom, Brian, and Bryce from Cordkillers for providing podcast content.
Authors
Chew-Yean Yam, Data Scientist
Uffaz Nathaniel, Software Engineer
Kathy Lee, Software Engineer