The rise and fall of Lernout & Hauspie: Belgium's pioneering speech-tech company
If you only eat one bagel today, this is the bagel.
Summary
This article tells the story of Lernout & Hauspie, a Belgian speech-technology company based in Ypres that rose to prominence in the 1990s with the promise of enabling voice interaction with computers. The company became one of Europe's most exciting tech stories before ultimately collapsing. The article explores the rise and fall of this pioneering speech recognition company that preceded modern AI assistants like Siri and Alexa.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledBefore Siri answered questions, before Alexa started sitting in kitchens pretending not to hear private conversations, and before AI meeting assistants began summarising meetings nobody wanted to attend anyway, there was Lernout & Hauspie.
Its promise was simple, bold and very attractive: one day, we would stop typing so much and simply talk to our machines.
That dream made Lernout & Hauspie one of Europe's most exciting technology stories.
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