Extending futures literacy to speech scientists and technologists

As speech technologies make rapid strides, facilitating multi-tasking, workflow automation, and cross-cultural collaboration, attention to the adverse effects of such technologies (e.g., legacy bias and inequities) continues to lag, exposing the need for non-designers, such as speech scientists and technologists, to critically assess the ethical implications of their work. In this paper, we present the art-based futuring methods used in a speech technology summer school we co-organized for guiding students in exploring the unintended consequences of speech technology outputs. By sharing our methods and pedagogical insights, we aim to help educators promote discussions on themes like fairness and inclusivity and equip students with skills for defining their own ethical positions and processes for making socially responsible R&D decisions. We show how a combination of scenario building and collaborative manifesto writing can stimulate moral imagination and promote more reflective and responsible R&D practices.