African American English is a rich language rooted in history and culture, but many speech recognition technologies fail to reflect that culture. To make sure that Black users don’t have to code-switch when using these technologies, Howard University and Google Research formed Project Elevate Black Voices. This partnership aims to improve AI speech recognition and ensure that Black voices are accurately recognized and interpreted. Researchers traveled across the country, cataloging dialects and diction used in Black communities, ultimately collecting 600 hours of data. The Howard African American English Dataset 1.0 will initially be made available exclusively to researchers and institutions within HBCUs to ensure the data is used in ways that reflect the interests and needs of marginalized communities. Watch the video to learn more about this project. #howarduniversity #projectelevateblackvoices #aave #artificialintelligence