Apple Podcasts will auto-generate transcripts for podcasts beginning today, thanks to the 17.4 update for iPhones and iPads. Transcripts will automatically appear for new podcast episodes shortly after their publication, while Apple will transcribe podcast back catalogs over time.
The podcast transcripts are searchable, allowing users to type in a specific word or phrase and skip to that part of an episode. Users can find transcripts for individual podcast episodes on the bottom-left corner of the “Now Playing” screen.
Podcasters who don’t want to use Apple’s automated transcription can opt to upload their own transcripts via RSS tags or in Apple Podcasts Connect for premium episodes, or they can download and edit Apple’s transcript before reuploading.

This is cool and great for accessibility.

I recently chose to read the latest episode of Decoder instead of listening to it. One of the advantages this also provided was that I could reference direct quotes in my post from the episode.

I could see Apple taking this further by making it easier to generate show notes / descriptions based on the episode using AI.