A child practicing with a speech therapist. PHOTO: FREEPIK
Clinically grounded, game-based and always available — MIRDC’s AI system is redefining how children learn to communicate.
Updated
November 27, 2025 3:26 PM
A child practicing with a speech therapist. PHOTO: FREEPIK
Speech and language delays are common, yet access to therapy remains limited. In Taiwan, only about 2,200 licensed speech-language pathologists serve hundreds of thousands of children who need support—especially those with autism spectrum disorders or significant communication challenges. As a result, many children miss crucial periods of language development simply because help isn’t available soon enough.
MIRDC’s new AI-powered interactive speech therapy system aims to close that gap. Instead of focusing solely on articulation, it targets a wider range of language skills that many children struggle with: oral expression, comprehension, sentence building and conversational ability. This makes it a more complete tool for childhood speech and language development.
The system combines game-based learning, AI-driven guidance and automated language assessment into one platform that can be used both in clinics and at home. This integrated design helps children practice more consistently, providing therapists and parents with clearer insight into their progress.
The interactive game modules are built around clinically validated therapy methods. Imitation exercises, picture cards, storybooks and conversational prompts are turned into structured game levels, each aligned with a specific developmental goal. This step-by-step approach helps children move from simple naming tasks to more complex comprehension and response skills, all within a sequenced curriculum.
A key differentiator is the system’s real-time AI speech interpretation. As the child talks, the AI analyzes the response and generates tailored therapeutic cues—such as imitation, modeling, expansion or extension—based on the conversation. These are the same strategies used by speech-language pathologists, but now children can access them continuously, supporting more effective at-home practice and reducing long gaps between sessions.
After each session, the system automatically conducts a data-driven language assessment using 20 objective indicators across semantics, syntax and pragmatics. This provides clinicians and families with measurable, easy-to-understand reports that show how the child is progressing and which skills need more attention—something many traditional tools do not offer.
By offering a personalized, scalable and clinically grounded solution, MIRDC’s AI therapy system helps address the ongoing shortage of speech-language services. It doesn’t replace therapists; instead, it extends their reach, allows for more consistent practice and helps families support their child’s communication at home.
As an added recognition of its impact, the system recently earned two R&D 100 Awards, including the Silver Award for Corporate Social Responsibility. But at its core, the project remains focused on a simple mission: making high-quality speech therapy accessible to every child who needs a voice.
Keep Reading
HKU professor apologizes after PhD student’s AI-assisted paper cites fabricated sources.
Updated
November 28, 2025 4:18 PM
.jpg)
The University of Hong Kong in Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong Island. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence, while remarkably capable, can also go astray—spinning convincing but entirely fabricated narratives. From politics to academia, AI’s “hallucinations” have repeatedly shown how powerful technology can go off-script when left unchecked.
Take Grok-2, for instance. In July 2024, the chatbot misled users about ballot deadlines in several U.S. states, just days after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid against former President Donald Trump. A year earlier, a U.S. lawyer found himself in court for relying on ChatGPT to draft a legal brief—only to discover that the AI tool had invented entire cases, citations and judicial opinions. And now, the academic world has its own cautionary tale.
Recently, a journal paper from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong was found to contain fabricated citations—sources apparently created by AI. The paper, titled “Forty Years of Fertility Transition in Hong Kong,” analyzed the decline in Hong Kong’s fertility rate over the past four decades. Authored by doctoral student Yiming Bai, along with Yip Siu-fai, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and other university officials, the study identified falling marriage rates as a key driver behind the city’s shrinking birth rate. The authors recommended structural reforms to make Hong Kong’s social and work environment more family-friendly.
But the credibility of the paper came into question when inconsistencies surfaced among its references. Out of 61 cited works, some included DOI (Digital Object Identifier) links that led to dead ends, displaying “DOI Not Found.” Others claimed to originate from academic journals, yet searches yielded no such publications.
Speaking to HK01, Yip acknowledged that his student had used AI tools to organize the citations but failed to verify the accuracy of the generated references. “As the corresponding author, I bear responsibility”, Yip said, apologizing for the damage caused to the University of Hong Kong and the journal’s reputation. He clarified that the paper itself had undergone two rounds of verification and that its content was not fabricated—only the citations had been mishandled.
Yip has since contacted the journal’s editor, who accepted his explanation and agreed to re-upload a corrected version in the coming days. A formal notice addressing the issue will also be released. Yip said he would personally review each citation “piece by piece” to ensure no errors remain.
As for the student involved, Yip described her as a diligent and high-performing researcher who made an honest mistake in her first attempt at using AI for academic assistance. Rather than penalize her, Yip chose a more constructive approach, urging her to take a course on how to use AI tools responsibly in academic research.
Ultimately, in an age where generative AI can produce everything from essays to legal arguments, there are two lessons to take away from this episode. First, AI is a powerful assistant, but only that. The final judgment must always rest with us. No matter how seamless the output seems, cross-checking and verifying information remain essential. Second, as AI becomes integral to academic and professional life, institutions must equip students and employees with the skills to use it responsibly. Training and mentorship are no longer optional; they’re the foundation for using AI to enhance, not undermine, human work.
Because in this age of intelligent machines, staying relevant isn’t about replacing human judgment with AI, it’s about learning how to work alongside it.