In todays world, automatic speech recognition(ASR) has been an important part of artificial intelligence. It has been recognized as an extremely difficult highly challenging high-tech topic. It mainly converts the vocabulary content in human speech into computer-readable input, which is generally understandable text content, and may also be binary encoding or character sequences. Since the 1950s, ASR has been continuously developing from simple systems for pronunciation of 10 English numbers to the rise of multiple frameworks and different neural networks. The process of ASR is constantly becoming diversified and specialized. Based on the analysis of existing literature, this article will briefly describe the history of speech recognition technology, the current development status of speech recognition, various applications in daily life and advanced areas, and methods for improvements. It indicates that nowadays automatic technology has become an essential part in peoples daily lives. Simple methods for eliminating echoes and noise to improve system performance and user experience are also an important part that should be considered in the use of ASR.