Freedom Speaks
A Global Voice AI Project Honoring Iranian Women
It’s Official. Freedom Speaks is LIVE!
🗣️ Alexa, Open Freedom Speaks.
Celebrate the official launch with us and discover the impact we can make together in voice AI!
You’re invited to attend our launch event on Thursday, February 9. Free Tickets
Poets, Musicians, Story-Tellers, Conversation Designers, AI Engineers unite to share the arc of the Women’s Movement in Iran
Freedom Speaks is a voice AI and storytelling platform, designed to share the stories of influential Iranian women, going back centuries. It also aims to preserve and improve voice AI for the Persian language.
This collaboration of women around the world is amplifying the arc of the women’s movement in Iran to honor the courage of Iranian women.
Explore this page and join us on February 9 to meet our collective of story-tellers, poets, Voice AI designers & engineers. Learn about the past and present experiences of Iranian women through immersive experiences, including media, story-telling, and voice AI.
Freedom Speaks Louder Today and ChatGPT Agrees
Read the latest from Freedom Speaks director Davar Ardalan.
What is Freedom Speaks?
We are women working in the field of Voice AI, data and storytelling originally from Iran, or living in Nigeria, New Zealand, the Netherlands and all over the US.
Freedom Speaks is a Voice AI and storytelling platform designed to share the stories of influential Iranian women going back centuries. And to ultimately preserve and improve voice AI for the Persian language.
Freedom Speaks is poised to become a powerful tool for freedom of expression. This AI media project is especially important in light of recent events in Iran that have silenced many voices.
Freedom Speaks’ creation began ahead of the winter solstice or Yalda – a time when Persian poems and stories are traditionally read long into the night.
The Voice AI platform is designed to celebrate Iranian women and the history of the women’s movement in Iran. Freedom Speaks is inspired by Sina, an award-winning retired Voice AI Storyteller, as well as the WomenLifeFreedom movement.
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact ZanZ.ai@outlook.com.
Alexa, Open Freedom Speaks
Try out our skill on your Alexa device!
Global AI Community Honors the Brave Women of Iran
See how you can help improve AI tools.
Watch & Listen: Roars & Whispers
'One Zan' inspired by Iranian Women's Movement
Listen to One Zan by Phoenix Pagliacci
Phoenix Pagliacci, a Canadian singer songwriter, is releasing a song called “One Zan” which is inspired by the bravery of Iranian women and their current Women, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendeghi, Azadi) movement. The song is part of a larger media project led by female storytelling technologists, novelists, artists, and musicians from around the world.
Roars and Whispers
Storytelling festival celebrating Iranian women’s courage past and present
Get Involved
Attend the Launch Event: February 9, 2023
Freedom Speaks Voice AI Launch Event
Don’t miss the chance to celebrate freedom and explore stories of courage with #FreedomSpeaks!
On February 9th, join us live for the global launch. This Voice AI experience honors Iranian women using powerful art such as poems, music and more from the past & present – all accessible through Alexa’s voice command “Alexa, open Freedom Speaks.”
Be part of an exciting conversation about pushing forward language capabilities by making datasets available in Persian so that even more voices can have true power. #FreedomSpeaks
A storyteller for the modern world, Freedom Speaks can inspire others to leverage it as a tool for freedom of expression and to provide a platform for voices from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Experience the Freedom Speaks Alexa Skill
Freedom Speaks | The Voice AI Experience
Freedom Speaks is a voice AI platform, designed to share the stories of inspiring Iranian women. It also aims to improve voice AI for the Persian language.
A storyteller for the modern world, Freedom Speaks can inspire others to leverage it as a tool for freedom of expression and to provide a platform for voices from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
The Making of Freedom Speaks with Davar Ardalan & Nikki McLay
The Making of Freedom Speaks (Formerly Zan Z)
Freedom Speaks was created in response to the courageous Iranian people, that took to the streets in the fall of 2022, declaring “woman, life, freedom”.
Davar Ardalan and Nikki McLay of Women in Voice, share some background on the making of Zan Z, the prototype for Freedom Speaks. Zan for Women, Z for generation Z.
Global AI Community Honors the Brave Women of Iran
See how you can help improve AI tools.
“Declaration of Machine, Citizen, and Culture”
How do we bring the Machine into this discussion of human rights?
Sign the Statement
Global AI Community Statement
Meet the Team
Iran Davar Ardalan
Iran Davar Ardalan is a member of Women in Voice where she leads the Freedom Speaks voice AI project with a team of WiV technologists and storytellers. Ardalan is also National Geographic’s executive producer of audio, where she oversees the award-winning podcast series, “Overheard”, the narrative limited series “Into the Depths” as well as new forays into spatial audio via Nat Geo’s Soundbank. In September 2022, Ardalan presented “Sounds Like National Geographic” at Voice2022 summit in Arlington, VA, talking about the future of spatial audio and voice AI as a potential keeper of wisdom and knowledge in relation to history, culture and nature.
Prior to this, Ardalan was deputy director of the Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program in Washington D.C. and before that a veteran journalist at NPR News for two decades. In May 2014, Davar was the recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor, for individual achievement and for promoting cultural unity. In Fall 2021, through her work at IVOW, (Intelligent Voices of Wisdom) Ardalan launched a conversational AI scholar on Google Assistant to preserve the wisdom and work of her late mother, Islamic scholar, Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar into 21-century voice technology.
In March 2022, Ardalan’s team at National Geographic’s Overheard were honored at the Ambies for Best Knowledge, Science and Tech Podcast. The team has also won the Jackson Wild Special Jury Award for Engaging Platforms for Into the Depths, three Anthem Awards in February 2022 and in May 2022, Overheard received a Webby, in the category of Diversity and Inclusion in Podcast.
Nikki McLay
Nikki is a creative director and product designer based in Auckland, New Zealand and is an Ambassador for the ANZ chapter of Women in Voice.
With a background in fine arts and a 20-year career in the design industry she is a storyteller at heart and has worked on all sorts of projects spanning a wide range of industries. She believes that design should be used to solve problems and make people’s lives better and tries to do this by implementing meaningful uses of technology to create memorable user experiences. Most recently she has been working on conversational AI, generative AI and Web3 projects for brands, communities and causes.
She regularly mentors at hackathons and events that help women and girls thrive in tech, and is part of Positive Sum DAO – building a blockchain value exchange for startup communities.
Tali Weinberg
Tali is a conversation designer and member of Women in Voice, based in Chicago, IL. As a former clinical speech pathologist, she is passionate about infusing accessibility into tech and design.
Bhuva Shakti
Chief Ethics & Culture Officer and the Director of Americas at Women in AI
Bhuva Shakti is the Chief Ethics and Culture Officer and the Director of Americas at Women in AI, with a mission to expand privacy and trust. With an MBA from Columbia university and as Senior Director at Capgemini, Bhuva has managed diverse multinational teams and launched several digital products in investment banking and regulatory compliance. As FinTech transformation entrepreneur at Wallet Max and dual-graduate in computer science and software engineering, she is passionate about financial inclusion and sustainable innovation. Bhuva is an early-stage investor in social impact startups with a vision to accelerate economic freedom and growth, while reducing inequalities.
Carrie Jaquith
Carrie Jaquith (she/her) is a digital product manager, advisory board member, and educator. She is currently a Global Head of Product at Abaxx Technologies. Previously, she was Global Head of Digital Enablement for AXA XL’s Data, Intelligence & Analytics group and founded the first IT Emerging Tech group at Lazard Frères. She has taught at Columbia University’s Master of Science in Applied Analytics program, and collaborated with groups at Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. She’s a member of Think Tanks focused on AI and genomics and is an Advisory Board Member of AIR Summit and Lyricist Lounge DAO. A classically trained musician, she is inspired by experiences in voice, video games, and machine shops for things that go fast.
Ezinwa Amadi
Ezinwa is a Conversation Designer passionate about creating innovative AI solutions. Her mission is to facilitate the adoption of Conversational AI technology in Africa. She seeks to introduce African talents especially women into the industry. She is also an ambassador of Women in Voice Africa.
Paris Golab
A passionate student of history, geopolitics and philosophy, Paris works on projects at the intersection of technology and communication to help reshape human behaviour. She is fascinated with how language and information technology can work together to drive impact and channel collective effort towards rebuilding sustainable economies that underpin a healthier planet and equality for all people that live on it. She works as a Digital Product Manager focused on building better internet infrastructure and information flows.
With a background in Financial Economics and Entrepreneurship, she has spent the last 10 years helping startups build brand identity and market strategy with unique and powerful campaigns, one of which included the production and launch of the SmarterMarkets™ podcast.
Simin (Tina) Soleimanifar
Tina is a Ph.D. student in Speech and Hearing Science. She supports the development of consumer electronic devices, from conducting feasibility studies to integrity testing and human studies, with an emphasis on high-quality audio systems, hearing assistive technologies, and voice-assistant technologies that help connect people to the beautiful world of sound.
