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AAC and Gen AI

Generative AI has gotten a flying start over a short period of time and one of the latest developments we've seen is Generative AI in AAC devices. Remiel Cooper, as a practitioner and an AAC user, has a unique perspective on this topic and this is their research concluding that Generative AI is generally not an ethical tool to be used within AAC programming.

Issues With Gen AI

AI and Stolen Work

Fair use laws allow for transformative works- not copied material  (Office, U. S. C.). AI will likely face intense restrictions in the coming years that it has avoided so far because of its unpredictable and rapid advancements.

AI and Environmental Impact

AI has a negative environmental impact, detrimentally affecting our planet in a variety of ways, from excessive water use to exploitive use of rare resources (UN environment programme 2024).

AI and Bias

AI produces negative opinions and perspectives on disabled people who are the primary users of AAC devices and are therefore influenced by their devices. These perspectives can have a devestating impact to disabled people and those who interact with them (Brandsen 2024).

AI and Trust

AI policy makers and companies have not provided tangible reasons to trust them and have blocked disabled people from being directly involved in working with them when calls for reform have been made (New York City Bar Association 2025).

AI, Data Security, and Privacy

AI historically has poor data policies and does not have clear laws surrounding its ability to store, track and sell people's data (King 2025).

AI and Consent

Most people are unable to provide informed consent to issues surrounding AAC and AI programming as they are not given a full comprehensive explanation or a chance to reject these changes (Mojibi 2026).

AI and Ableism

Reasons for the implemetation of AI into AAC systems are dependent on ableist rationals that ultimately benefit communication partners and not the communicator, devaluing the communicator's needs, wants, and desires.

Caveats

Many AAC users do not want AI in their AAC systems for these reasons or want to be fully in control of AI in their AAC systems. Other AAC users are okay with AI in their systems with little oversight. Overall, the most important consideration is the full consent of the AAC user. This consent must take into consideration that they have all the information of the above, the capacity to process it, and then capacity to communicate that choice. If that is done, it is ultimately their choice if Generative AI should be added to their AAC system.

AAC and Gen AI Video Series

If you prefer videos to reading, I revisit the same points above in a video series on TikTok below.

References

  1. Brandsen, S., Chandrasekhar, T., Franz, L., Grapel, J., Dawson, G., & Carlson, D. (2024). Prevalence of bias against neurodivergence‐related terms in artificial intelligence language models. Autism Research, 17(2), 234–248. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3094

  2. King, J., Klyman, K., Capstick, E., Saade, T., & Hsieh, V. (2025). User privacy and large language models: An Analysis of Frontier Developers’ privacy policies. Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 8(2), 1465–1477. https://doi.org/10.1609/aies.v8i2.36646

  3. Mojibi M. (2026). You Want to Talk About What?! Supporting Intimate Communication. Paper presented at: Convergence: California Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Conference; San Francisco, California,

  4. New York City Bar Association. (2025, July 2). The impact of the use of AI on people with disabilities. New York City Bar Association. https://www.nycbar.org/reports/the-impact-of-the-use-of-ai-on-people-with-disabilities/

  5. Office, U. S. C. (n.d.). Chapter 11: Subject matter and scope of copyright. Chapter 1 - Circular 92 | U.S. Copyright Office. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#103

  6. UN environment programme. (2024, September 21). AI has an environmental problem. Here's what the world can do about that. Environment under review. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about

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