People’s ability to use their chosen language is critical for human dignity and the general wellbeing of society. Language facilitates meaningful interactions with one another, enabling expression, and the transmission of history and traditions. And language allows us to construct our future. But what if the technology we use to construct this future doesn’t acknowledge your language?
Join Kathy Reid for an examination of speech recognition technology through a cybernetic lens. A communication tool that translates spoken words into text using voice commands instead of typing, speech recognition technology is increasingly serving diverse users in complex settings.
This event is free to attend but bookings are essential.
For those unable to make it to Canberra for the panel discussion, it will be livestreamed online via the Library's Facebook page. No bookings are required to watch the online stream.
On the evening, for those who wish to meet for refreshments prior to the event, Bookplate Cafe will remain open until the event starts at 6pm.
Cybernetic thinking for a new world is presented by the ANU School of Cybernetics in partnership with the National Library of Australia.
Image Credit: Quinn Dombrowski CC-BY-SA
About Kathy Reid
Kathy Reid is a PhD candidate at the ANU School of Cybernetics, and works at the intersection of open source, emerging technologies, and technical communities. Over the last 20 years, Kathy has held several senior leadership roles in the technology industry, and then decided she would return to study, completing a Master of Cybernetics at the School of Cybernetics. Kathy is currently investigating digital voice assistants and what we can do to ensure inclusion and representation is achieved in order to build more equitable speech recognition models.
Cybernetic thinking for a new world
This series of cybernetic musings marks National Science Week 2022 and is co-presented by the ANU School of Cybernetics.
We can be deeply affected by the issues that seem beyond our control: the global pandemic, climate change, the cost of living and war. But we shape the future in this very moment – and what we do today is informed by many systems with multiple histories and interconnections.
Cybernetics first found form in the 1940 and 1950s as a response to the rapid expansions in computing technology following World War II, fusing maths, engineering, and philosophy with biology, psychology, anthropology and many other fields. From its inception, cybernetics was a generative intellectual wellspring, shaping everything from AI to critical systems theory computer-driven art and music, design thinking, and the internet.
The idea of cybernetics – of steering a technological object, and of the idea of humans in the loop, and of the environment in that same loop – is just as relevant today as it was 70 years ago, providing us with hopeful and actionable ways to imagine our futures.
Join us during National Science Week this August to discover how repurposing cybernetics for the 21st century might help us better understand our present moment in all its complexity, helping us think differently, ask critical questions, make meaningful change and shape the futures we want to see.
Type
Talks / Lecture
