diff --git a/src/vak/metrics/distance/functional.py b/src/vak/metrics/distance/functional.py
index e429e3a82..8683afa47 100644
--- a/src/vak/metrics/distance/functional.py
+++ b/src/vak/metrics/distance/functional.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import numpy as np
+import torch
 
 
 def levenshtein(source, target):
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ def levenshtein(source, target):
 
         d0, d1 = d1, d0
 
-    return d0[-1]
+    return torch.tensor(d0[-1], dtype=torch.int32)
 
 
 def segment_error_rate(y_pred, y_true):
@@ -95,4 +96,5 @@ def segment_error_rate(y_pred, y_true):
             "segment error rate is undefined when length of y_true is zero"
         )
 
-    return levenshtein(y_pred, y_true) / len(y_true)
+    rate = levenshtein(y_pred, y_true) / len(y_true)
+    return torch.tensor(rate, dtype=torch.float32)