Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google, under the leadership of Sundar Pichai, has announced a joint project with Howard University that aims to improve Automatic Speech Recognition or ASR technology for the Black community.

What Happened: According to Google’s research, Black users face a more challenging experience with ASR than their white counterparts. 

This stark disparity has prompted the tech giant to join forces with Howard University to launch Project Elevate Black Voices or EBV, which focuses on compiling a high-quality African-American English speech dataset. 

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One notable aspect of this partnership is that Howard University will retain ownership and licensing rights over the dataset. 

Dr. Courtney Heldreth, Google Search’s responsible AI human-centered technology UX team lead, highlighted the importance of responsible data collection, given the historical context of data collection practices for African Americans. 

“There’s a lot of distrust and mistrust, rightfully so, towards technology. We want to make sure that when we’re collecting something that’s as sensitive as voice data, which is considered biometric data, we are doing it in partnership with folks who are very connected to and understand the Black community,” she told The Root. 

Dr. Gloria Washington, Project EBV’s principal investigator and associate professor at Howard University, expressed her commitment to reducing bias in communication.

She explained, “I want to make sure that—from an academic perspective—we can utilize smarter technology that’ll help reduce this bias so that everyone can be their authentic selves.” 

Photo by World Economic Forum on Flickr

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