Science without Walls – AImpower’s presentation at AAAS 2024 Annual Meeting

By Shaomei Wu

I was very excited to speak at American Association for Advancements in Science’s Annual Meeting last week in Denver, with the support and sponsorship from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

This year’s meeting theme is “Science without Walls”, which aligns so well with AImpower.org’s mission to dismantle technological barriers and level the playfields for all. I was invited to speak on the panel of “I’m Sorry, I Don’t Understand”: How Voice AI Poses Barriers — and Some Solutions, organized by Shelley B. Brundage and Nan Bernstein Ratner, alongside Hannah Rowe and Abraham Glasser.

The panel was a success, receiving lots of thoughtful questions and interesting discussions afterwards. You can read the slides here.

The conference attendants came from diverse backgrounds, mostly scientists in different fields, but also with a good mix of scientific and technology policy makers, funding agencies, STEM educators, and science writers/communicators. I spoke to quite a few people throughout the conference, and none of them had heard about or thought of stuttering and voice technologies before! So it was a great opportunity to raise general awareness and advocating for AI equity from the general scientific community!

It was my first time visiting Denver, and I was not disappointed! Although the snow was a bit a surprise (should it be?), but the city did look beautiful in white. I was also impressed by its public arts, and how friendly people are in Denver (we even got free ice cream the first night we arrived!). My daughter is so in love with Denver now that she is considering moving here when she grows up 🤣.