Can You Hear Me Now?: Speaking Up About Dangers of Speech Technology

From virtual assistants to machine translation, speech technology has become an essential tool in business and society. However, we suggest there is a hidden dark side to this technology that may have a detrimental effect on individuals' well-being, particularly marginalized users who belong to historically underrepresented groups. Drawing on research in ethics, diversity, and computer science, we shed light on three critical dangers that speech technology poses for marginalized users -- all of which cause individuals to 'unheard'. Following our discussion, we provide practical recommendations for overcoming these obstacles along with suggestions for future scholarship.