My work on AI ethics sits between speech technology, governance, and research ethics, drawing on philosophy and public policy alongside technical issues. The question I keep returning to is who has standing when a speech system fails someone and why the legal instruments fall short of addressing that.
Focus Areas
- Linguistic diversity and minoritized languages
- Fairness and bias in speech technologies
- Privacy, consent, and speech data governance
- Explainable and accountable AI
- Ethics education for speech technology
Leadership & Governance Roles
- Ethics Chair, IEEE ASLI 2027 — IEEE International Conference on Audio, Speech, and Language Intelligence, Singapore (2026–2027)
- Chair, ISCA Ethics Committee (2025–2026)
- Ethics Chair, INTERSPEECH (2025–2026)
- Management Committee Member, GRADE COST Action CA21141 — AI ethics and governance policy (2025–present)
- Working Group Member, CoARA — Ethics and Research Integrity Policy in Responsible Research Assessment for Data & AI (2023–present)
- Chair, Ethics Committee, Faculty Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen (2018–2020; 2025–2026)
Current Projects
- Research on the governance gap in AI for minoritized languages: binding AI law is language-blind, language law is unenforceable, and neither leaves a speech community anywhere to go. Frisian is the test case.
- Co-editing Speech Tech Ethics (with Maggie Glass), a forthcoming book on ethical frameworks for speech and language technologies.
- Developing ethical guidelines and educational resources for speech technology research and teaching.
- Integrating AI ethics into speech technology curricula and professional training.
Education & Outreach
- Organizer, Speech Tech Summer Schools (2023, 2024)
- Developed the STQ module "GPT in the Classroom: Ethical Considerations" (2024)
- Completed professional training in AI ethics through the University of California and Lund University
Recent Talks
- Sep 2026 – The Governance Gap in AI for Minoritized Languages — PLURILINGMEDIA AI Ad Hoc Committee
- Jun 2026 – Who Governs the Spoken Word? Speech Tech, Minoritized Languages, and the Limits of AI Law — University of Warsaw
- Jun 2026 – Ethical Implications of AI in Research Assessment — CoARA Spotlight Session
- 2024 – Co-organizer, Exploring the Dark Side of Future Language Technologies: Linguistic (In)security, Ethics, and Privacy in the Human–Machine Era
- 2023–2025 – Dutch Speech Tech Day series