How to think about AI

March 2025

Hearing loss? AI to the rescue

By Paula DeJohn

As I am typing this story on my laptop computer, I keep waiting for the screen to correct my spelling and finish words for me. I am grateful that for once it doesn’t, because I’d like to tell the story my way, in my own words. The fact that I have to say that is proof that I’ve already become accustomed to one ubiquitous feature of artificial intelligence (AI)—automatic editing of computer documents such as email and text messages.

The concept of AI is computing power that goes beyond following formulas to answering questions and exhibiting abilities that we think of as intelligence—building on past experience, like the TV shows someone has watched to predict what they’d like to watch next, for example. Other common applications include internet search engines, virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, and conversational responses like ChatGPT.

Learning to help us hear

AI, with its ability to record vast amounts of data and to “learn” which facts to choose in a given instance, is ripe for application to health care—and that includes hearing care. At the February Denver Chapter meeting, Vinaya Manchaiah, AuD, MBA, PhD, professor and director of audiology at the University of Colorado Hospital, described the present and future uses of AI technology. “All of us are using AI already, even if we don’t know it,” he said, and added, “There is a goal to apply AI to everything we do.”

Some experts are warning of unintended consequences of letting the technology get out of hand. Yet, it can benefit the newest generation of hearing aids, Dr Manchaiah explained. AI helps hearing aids distinguish sounds better, improves clarity, reduces noise, and adapts to changing environments automatically, without needing manual adjustments.

There are limits, however: “It requires more processing power and memory capacity than we now have,” he noted. “At the current stage of development, the full capacity of AI has not been realized in hearing aids, although their applications have already helped improve hearing aid sound processing.”

In the same way, AI can improve the effectiveness of cochlear implants. Dr Manchaiah explained, “We also have AI being used in cochlear implants to enhance signal processing, to make speech clearer and also to personalize the sound settings.”

For tinnitus management, AI can identify sound patterns and suggest remedies.
To produce open and closed captions, it can transcribe speech and other sounds in real time. Chatbots on our devices can discuss hearing issues.

Helping with research

Beyond the benefits that consumers can see, science and health care professionals are using AI-trained software to make their work easier and more accurate.

For example, it can rapidly classify a set of images to identify middle ear disease. Using an algorithm, which is a list of progressively narrower choices, it can analyze symptoms to show the most likely diagnosis, and even recommend the most appropriate clinical specialty for treatment.

AI has another ability that earlier computers did not have: It can learn languages more like people do, using what specialists call “large language models” (LLM). As Dr Manchaiah explained, “Computers use numbers, but humans communicate in words, not numbers. With LLM, they can use deep learning to perform natural language processing.”

The basis for LLM and AI in general is an immense amount of information collected from many sources and stored in huge data centers. Security of that data is a growing concern. There are few safeguards around how it can be used or how to determine its accuracy.

As Dr Manchaiah noted, “The AI can only be as good as the data that was used to train it.” <>

AI can analyze images much faster than humans, and with similar accuracy, as this slide from Digital Medicine shows.

Denver Chapter elects new board

At its February meeting, the HLAA Denver Chapter elected the following officers and board members for the 2025 term:

President: Marilyn Weinhouse

Vice President: Jennifer McBride

Secretary: Ed Winograd

Treasurer: Steve Nelson

Audiology Liaison: Dusty Jessen

Student Liaison: Victoria Rivera

At Large Board Member: Roger Ponds

Newsletter Editor: Paula DeJohn

World Hearing Day

On March 3, the world will focus on hearing health for World Hearing Day, and the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) will release new shareable resources designed to help people get the trusted information they need in one place. Stay tuned for our new Hearing Loss Toolkit, which we’ll be sharing on social media and other channels.

"For HLAA, every day is about hearing health, but on March 3, we share our message with the rest of the world. This year, we’re excited to roll out new tools to help take the guesswork out of hearing loss. They’ll be updated and shareable—with family and friends, at HLAA Chapter events and on social media to help everyone make hearing health a priority," says Executive Director Barbara Kelley.

Upcoming meetings

The next meeting will be Saturday, March 15, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Koelbel Library, 5955 South Holly St., Centennial, CO 80121. in Meeting Room A and via Zoom. Our speaker will be Katherine Rybak, author of Becoming Hearing Empowered - A Guided Journal for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Dues for 2025 are $20 for an individual and $30 for a couple. Please bring a check made out to HLAA Denver, or you can pay online at https://hearinglossdenver.org/ (scroll down to "Pay Annual Dues”).

The HOPE online meetings will continue on third Wednesdays; the March meeting will be the 19th. To learn more or to receive an invitation with the Zoom link, email jen427mcbride@gmail.com.

Speaking from the heart

When the HLAA Convention 2025 meets June 11-14 in Indianapolis, Denver Chapter Vice President Jennifer McBride will be on the program. She will lead an interactive session called Speaking From the Heart, on navigating the emotional impacts of hearing loss.

Grocery fundraiser

The Denver Chapter is promoting a program by King Soopers, in which participants using a shopper’s card (the card you swipe to get a discount) can generate a contribution to the chapter with each purchase. There is no cost to you. Just log on to https://hearinglossdenver.org/community-rewards-program. You also can pay dues or make a donation to our chapter online. Just go to https://hearinglossdenver.org/

Correction

The January HAH contained an error regarding captions. Terri Shirley’s promotion in Boulder-area theaters is for open captions, not closed captions as stated in the article “Commission attention turns to hearing loss”. The difference is that closed captions appear on a specific device and can be turned on and off by the user, while open captions are publicly displayed at events such as movies and live theater productions.

Words to remember

Alexander Hurst , writing in The Guardian, Feb. 15, 2025, quotes Max Tegmark, known as one of the “godfathers of AI”, at a conference on developing safe and ethical AI: “It’s not today’s AI we need to worry about, it’s next year’s. It’s like if you were interviewing me in 1942, and you asked me: ‘Why aren’t people worried about a nuclear arms race?’ Except they think they are in an arms race, but it’s actually a suicide race.”

On their recent tour of Europe, Jen McBride and her husband Steve visited the Hall of Mirrors at the Versailles Palace.