🚀 I’m excited to announce the launch of our new research chair DevAI&Speech (2025–2029), funded by the Grenoble AI Institute MIAI Cluster IA! The project explores how human developmental processes can inspire more grounded and socially aware conversational AI (1/6).

Children are incredible language learning machines. But how do they do it? Our latest paper, just published in TICS, synthesizes decades of evidence to propose four components that must be built into any theory of how children learn language. 1/ www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @mpi-nl.bsky.social

Next we jump from analyzing text models to predictive speech models! Phoneticists have claimed for decades that humans rely more on contextual cues when processing vowels compared to consonants. Turns out so do speech models!

Don't miss our next ICIS webinar! June 19 2025. Join leading researchers for a deep dive into cutting-edge work in infancy research. infantstudies.org/icis-online-... #InfantResearch #InfantStudies

A great opportunity to learn how speech technology can advance research on how children learn language (and vice versa) You know, beyond surveillance and chatbots 🙊

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Interested in collecting and processing naturalistic audio data using new AI tools? If so, join us for our free, two-day workshop; 'Long Form Audio Recordings: A to Z', generously supported by Cardiff University Doctoral Academy.

🤖🧠 Paper out in Nature Communications! 🧠🤖 Bayesian models can learn rapidly. Neural networks can handle messy, naturalistic data. How can we combine these strengths? Our answer: Use meta-learning to distill Bayesian priors into a neural network! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/n

Super excited to submit a big sabbatical project this year: "Continuous developmental changes in word recognition support language learning across early childhood": osf.io/preprints/ps...

My 2025 resolution is to write threads for papers authored by the Language Development Dept here at MPI for Psycholinguistics. The 3rd in the series: Gesture screening in young infants: Highly sensitive to risk factors for communication delay, Alcock et al 1/ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Glad to share this new study comparing the performance and biases of the LENA and ACLEW algorithms in analyzing language environments in Down, Fragile X, Angelman syndromes, and populations at elevated likelihood for autism 👶📄 osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵1/12