Lectures on Tap - "Speech AI Can and Will Be Used Against You"

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "Speech AI Can and Will Be Used Against You"

🎤 Speaker: Professor Nicole Holliday

Join us for a compelling evening with Professor Nicole Holliday as she examines how AI and Large Language Models are transforming — and threatening — the way human speech is judged in everyday life.

Linguists know that speakers are experts in their own language, yet AI systems built to “evaluate,” “improve,” and translate speech often ignore linguistic principles and real-world social context. Drawing on several cutting-edge studies, Professor Holliday will show how these tools systematically misinterpret human speech, reproduce harmful social stereotypes, and operate without transparency for either designers or users.

As these systems are already influencing employment decisions, speech therapy, and even police reports, their biases pose serious risks, particularly for marginalized communities.

Nicole Holliday is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley. A leading researcher in sociophonetics, speech technology, and linguistic discrimination, her work appears in journals such as Journal of Sociophonetics, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, and Laboratory Phonology. She is also a frequent media commentator for outlets including the New York Times, The Guardian, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

7:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

7:55 PM – Host introduction

8:00 PM – Lecture begins

8:45 PM – Audience Q&A

9:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

9:30 PM – Wrap up.