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OpenAI for Developers: What Response Does Whisper API Output with Temperature Set to 0?

Learn how the Whisper API transcription function responds when the temperature parameter is set to 0. Understand the deterministic behavior and output format for OpenAI developers.

Question

You provide input to the Whisper API transcription function using your preferred programming library. What type of response will you receive if you set the value for the temperature parameter to 0?

A. Image
B. Audio
C. Video
D. Text

Answer

D. Text

Explanation

Temperature Parameter in Whisper API

  • The temperature parameter controls randomness in the output. A lower temperature (e.g., 0) makes the transcription deterministic by prioritizing tokens with the highest probability during decoding.
  • When set to 0, the model eliminates randomness entirely, ensuring that it selects tokens based purely on their highest log probabilities. This results in highly accurate and consistent transcriptions.

Output Format

The Whisper API processes audio files and converts them into text. With a temperature of 0, the transcription output is deterministic and provided as text in formats such as plain text, JSON, or other structured formats depending on your request settings.

Why Text Is the Output

Whisper is an automatic speech recognition (ASR) model designed specifically for converting spoken audio into textual representations. Setting the temperature to 0 ensures precise transcription without introducing variability, making text the default and expected output.

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