2020 NHCA Annual Conference

AI holds promise for empowering the lay individual and trained clinicians to better prevent hearing loss and mitigate its effects. However, despite the substantial press AI has received, it is often unclear how it may shape one's own field. This overview will provide a description of the AI space, the technologies that have driven its recent success in multiple domains, and future AI trends and challenges in a manner accessible to working professionals in audiology, engineering, and healthcare. We will then show examples of how work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and other research centers are harnessing AI for hearing conservation and for reducing the debilitating effects of hearing loss. These examples include fast, efficient feedback on hearing protection status and re-imagining (and making real) the "hearable" of the future.