Voice assistants and auto-captions are everywhere now, but they can quickly fall apart when someone speaks with an accent the system wasn’t trained to recognise, or in a language it rarely “hears”. 

In this episode of the SLV LAB Conversations podcast, we were joined by technologist, linguist and researcher Kathy Reid who unpacked why that happens and what can be done about it. She introduces Mozilla Common Voice, a community-led project that collects speech in hundreds of languages and dialects. Kathy also talks through the Mozilla Data Collective and what it could mean for libraries and other cultural institutions facing constant scraping of online collections.

Voice assistants and auto-captions are everywhere now, but they can quickly fall apart when someone speaks with an accent the system wasn&rsquo;t trained to recognise, or in a language it rarely &ldquo;hears&rdquo;.&nbsp;
In this episode of the SLV LAB Conversations podcast, we were joined by technologist, linguist and researcher Kathy Reid who unpacked why that happens and what can be done about it. She introduces Mozilla Common Voice, a community-led project that collects speech in hundreds of languages and dialects. Kathy also talks through the Mozilla Data Collective and what it could mean for libraries and other cultural institutions facing constant scraping of online collections.

Explore emerging tech, digital experimentation and all things library-futures.

SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. We experiment with technology to open access to collections, data and spaces. In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

Explore emerging tech, digital experimentation and all things library-futures.
SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. We experiment with technology to open access to collections, data and spaces.&nbsp;In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

SLV LAB Conversations

Emerging tech, digital experimentation and library-futures.

SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. We experiment with technology to open access to collections, data and spaces. In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

Emerging tech, digital experimentation and library-futures.
SLV LAB is State Library Victoria's prototyping and innovation lab. We experiment with technology to open access to collections, data and spaces.&nbsp;In our Conversations series, we discuss emerging technology, digital experimentation and library futures with artists, technologists and workers in the cultural sector.

Building better AI speech tech with global voices – Kathy Reid

How can mixed reality technologies create emergent social experiences? Scientist-artist Yoyo Munk (US) joined SLV's Paula Bray and CEO Paul Duldig to discuss blending virtual geometries with shared physical space in their recent KAGAMI and Medusa projects. Yoyo asks how technological imperfections can evoke meaning, and explains their journey from scientist to artist by finding the signal in the noise. Together, they wonder how mixed reality might interact with library collections, and the potential for digital visualisations to not only reveal the dynamic evolution of knowledge archives, but to shape future collecting practices.

This conversation was recorded in March 2025, a few months before Yoyo joined SLV LAB as its first Creative Technologist‑in‑Residence. His resulting project, In Memory | Of Being, was a mixed reality installation built from the Library’s digitised holdings: thousands of unidentified portraits, fragile glass‑plate negatives, vintage stereographs and oral history recordings.

How can mixed reality technologies create emergent social experiences? Scientist-artist Yoyo Munk (US) joined SLV's Paula Bray and CEO Paul Duldig to discuss blending virtual geometries with shared physical space in their recent KAGAMI and Medusa projects. Yoyo asks how technological imperfections can evoke meaning, and explains their journey from scientist to artist by finding the signal in the noise. Together, they wonder how mixed reality might interact with library collections, and the potential for digital visualisations to not only reveal the dynamic evolution of knowledge archives, but to shape future collecting practices.
This conversation was recorded in March 2025, a few months before Yoyo joined SLV LAB as its first Creative Technologist‑in‑Residence. His resulting project,&nbsp;<a href="https://lab.slv.vic.gov.au/articles/yoyo-munk-cultural-amnesia">In Memory | Of Being</a>, was a mixed reality installation built from the Library&rsquo;s digitised holdings: thousands of unidentified portraits, fragile glass‑plate negatives, vintage stereographs and oral history recordings.

The social life of mixed reality – Yoyo Munk

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems pull data from across the internet, library databases and our online presence, it generates a significant change in our relationship with knowledge. But what do we really know about this pervasive technology? Do our societies have robust guardrails in place to protect people and democracies, and have we reckoned with AI’s environmental impact?

Join award-winning Professor Kate Crawford, one of the world’s foremost scholars on the social and political implications of AI, as she explores how AI is reshaping our societies, ecosystems and power structures with host Natasha Mitchell in State Library Victoria's 2024 For Future Reference lecture.

Professor Kate Crawford is a leading international scholar of artificial intelligence. She is a Professor at USC Annenberg, a Senior Principal Researcher at MSR New York, and was the inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Her book Atlas of AI won multiple awards and was named one of the best books of 2021 by New Scientist and The Financial Times. Her project Anatomy of an AI System with Vladan Joler won the Design of the Year Award in 2019 and is on show at MoMA from 2022-2024.

Their latest work, Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power, won the Grand Prize of the European Commission for art and technology. She was named on the TIME100 list as one of the most influential people in AI.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems pull data from across the internet, library databases and our online presence, it generates a significant change in our relationship with knowledge. But what do we really know about this pervasive technology? Do our societies have robust guardrails in place to protect people and democracies, and have we reckoned with AI&rsquo;s environmental impact?
Join&nbsp;award-winning&nbsp;Professor Kate Crawford, one of the world&rsquo;s foremost scholars on the social and political implications of AI, as she explores how AI is reshaping our societies, ecosystems and power structures with host&nbsp;Natasha Mitchell&nbsp;in State Library Victoria's 2024&nbsp;For Future Reference lecture.
Professor Kate Crawford is a leading international scholar of artificial intelligence. She is a Professor at USC Annenberg, a Senior Principal Researcher at MSR New York, and was the inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice at the &Eacute;cole Normale Sup&eacute;rieure in Paris.
Her book&nbsp;Atlas of AI&nbsp;won multiple awards and was named one of the best books of 2021 by&nbsp;New Scientist&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Financial Times. Her project&nbsp;Anatomy of an AI System&nbsp;with Vladan Joler won the Design of the Year Award in 2019 and is on show at MoMA from 2022-2024.
Their latest work,&nbsp;Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power, won the Grand Prize of the European Commission for art and technology. She was named on the TIME100 list as one of the most influential people in AI.

Mapping Planetary AI – Kate Crawford [lecture recording]

“Artificial Intelligence is here. It’s not going to go away. We can hate it, we can refuse it, we can have doubts. But it’s here – and maybe we can use it for our own purposes and our own workflows in our institutions.” Dr Ines Vodopivec is convinced that AI (Artificial Intelligence) isn’t a novelty bolted onto library systems; it’s already reshaping users’ expectations and our definitions of data, and the workflows that connect the two.

Ines began her career in a Franciscan monastery in Slovenia, cataloguing 16th Century manuscripts, and has since then moved between librarianship, restoration and digitisation. Today, she is a digital‑heritage leader and Secretary General of AI4LAM whose career spans deputy directorship at Slovenia’s National and University Library, roles with UNESCO’s Memory of the World and the Europeana Network Association board.

In early February 2026, on a whirlwind tour of GLAM institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, she stopped by State Library Victoria to deliver a presentation that explored practical case studies for AI implementation in libraries across Europe and the US, including the National Library of Norway, Standford University Libraries and Bibliothèque National de France.

Alongside the promise of AI, she weighs ethics, access and the realities of staff skills, arguing for AI literacy and cross‑sector collaboration so libraries can remain trusted, user‑centred infrastructures.

&ldquo;Artificial Intelligence is here. It&rsquo;s not going to go away. We can hate it, we can refuse it, we can have doubts. But it&rsquo;s here &ndash; and maybe we can use it for our own purposes and our own workflows in our institutions.&rdquo;&nbsp;Dr Ines Vodopivec is convinced that AI (Artificial Intelligence) isn&rsquo;t a novelty bolted onto library systems; it&rsquo;s already reshaping users&rsquo; expectations and our definitions of data, and the workflows that connect the two.
Ines began her career in a Franciscan monastery in Slovenia, cataloguing 16th Century manuscripts, and has since then moved between librarianship, restoration and digitisation. Today, she is a digital‑heritage leader and Secretary General of <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/ai4lam">AI4LAM</a> whose career spans deputy directorship at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_and_University_Library_of_Slovenia">Slovenia&rsquo;s National and University Library</a>, roles with <a href="https://en.unesco.org/programme/mow">UNESCO&rsquo;s Memory of the World</a> and the <a href="https://pro.europeana.eu/europeana-network-association">Europeana Network Association</a> board.
In early February 2026, on a whirlwind tour of GLAM institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, she stopped by State Library Victoria to deliver a presentation that explored practical case studies for AI implementation in libraries across Europe and the US, including the National Library of Norway, Standford University Libraries and Biblioth&egrave;que National de France.
Alongside the promise of AI, she weighs ethics, access and the realities of staff skills, arguing for AI literacy and cross‑sector collaboration so libraries can remain trusted, user‑centred infrastructures.

AI tools are rapidly changing how we use libraries. Digital heritage leader Ines Vodopivec explains how we can stay ahead of the game, using case studies from Europe and the US.

Building better AI speech tech with global voices – Kathy Reid

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