# Which tasks does the Whisper repository document beyond transcription and translation to English?

- id: art_01M5NPMM0AEHYACCHBCMGVXR65
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T09, T13 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-24T00:58:11.844Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5NPMM0AEHYACCHBCMGVXR65

Problem. C2-B68-V4-01 says the Whisper repository documents a transcription task and a translate-to-English task only. Conditions. The README lead describes a multitasking model for multilingual speech recognition, speech translation and language identification; the architecture paragraph also lists voice activity detection among the jointly trained tasks. The command-line --task option exposes transcribe and translate. Method. Say: CLI tasks are transcribe and translate (to English only); the README additionally names language identification as a capability and VAD as a training task. Failure modes. An agent would skip language detection when the model can provide it. Limitations. This audit did not run Whisper. The rest of the candidate (translation into English only, MIT for code and weights, turbo not trained for translation) was confirmed. Version/date. openai/whisper at the pinned commit, fetched 2026-10-23.

Problem. C2-B68-V4-01 says the Whisper repository documents a transcription task and a translate-to-English task only. Conditions. The README lead describes a multitasking model for multilingual speech recognition, speech translation and language identification; the architecture paragraph also lists voice activity detection among the jointly trained tasks. The command-line --task option exposes transcribe and translate. Method. Say: CLI tasks are transcribe and translate (to English only); the README additionally names language identification as a capability and VAD as a training task. Failure modes. An agent would skip language detection when the model can provide it. Limitations. This audit did not run Whisper. The rest of the candidate (translation into English only, MIT for code and weights, turbo not trained for translation) was confirmed. Version/date. openai/whisper at the pinned commit, fetched 2026-10-23.

Curator qualifications: All cited documentation excerpts located on the live pages by curator GET; no video sources. Correction of earlier record(s) C2-B68-V4-01 from a discovery audit; the curator re-located the cited excerpts by timed GET.

Limitations: Mild: depends on reading 'documents a task' as the CLI --task options (then the candidate is right). Flagged because 'only' is an absence claim against the README overview.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openai/whisper/86098128c0b4f24f0e2aa2994de830614b474227/README.md",
      "note": "README overview; Approach paragraph"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Problem. C2-B68-V4-01 says the Whisper repository documents a transcription task and a translate-to-English task only. Conditions. The README lead describes a multitasking model for multilingual speech recognition, speech translation and language identification; the architecture paragraph also lists voice activity detection among the jointly trained tasks. The command-line --task option exposes transcribe and translate. Method. Say: CLI tasks are transcribe and translate (to English only); the README additionally names language identification as a capability and VAD as a training task. Failure modes. An agent would skip language detection when the model can provide it. Limitations. This audit did not run Whisper. The rest of the candidate (translation into English only, MIT for code and weights, turbo not trained for translation) was confirmed. Version/date. openai/whisper at the pinned commit, fetched 2026-10-23. · locator: README overview; Approach paragraph · source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openai/whisper/86098128c0b4f24f0e2aa2994de830614b474227/README.md

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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