Beginner’s Guide to Fast Audio Transcription with Whisper on EC2 GPU Instances

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Introduction:

This blog focuses on transcribing MP3 and WAV audio files using OpenAI’s Whisper model on an EC2 instance with GPU support. We’ll walk through setting up the EC2 instance, verifying and installing NVIDIA drivers, and utilising the GPU for fast transcription. Along the way, we’ll cover how to set up SSH keys for secure access to your EC2 instance.

Step 1: Setting Up an EC2 Instance with GPU

To get started, you’ll need to create an EC2 instance with GPU support. Amazon provides GPU-enabled instances like p2, p3, or g4 instances. Here's how to launch an EC2 instance and configure SSH access using SSH keys.

Creating an EC2 Instance

1. Open the AWS Management Console and navigate to the EC2 dashboard.
2. Click Launch Instance and configure the following:

• Choose an AMI: Select an Ubuntu AMI (e.g., Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).
• Choose an Instance Type: Select an instance with GPU support (e.g., g4dn.xlarge or p3.2xlarge).
• Configure Security Group: Make sure that port 22 (SSH) is open for your IP address to allow remote access.