A gap between reasons for skilled use of BCI speech devices and reasons for utterances, with implications for speech ownership

The skilled use of a speech BCI device will draw upon practical experience gained through the use of that very device. The reasons a user may have for using a device in a particular way, reflecting that skill gained via familiarity with the device, may differ significantly from the reasons that a speaker might have for their utterances. The potential divergence between reasons constituting skilled use and BCI-mediated speech output may serve to make clear an instrumental relationship between speaker and BCI speech device. This will affect the way in which the device and the speech it produces for the user can be thought of as being “reasons responsive”, hence the way in which the user can be said to be in control of their device. Ultimately, this divergence will come down to how ownership of produced speech can be considered. The upshot will be that skillful use of a synthetic speech device might include practices that diverge from standard speech in significant ways. This might further indicate that synthetic speech devices ought to be considered as different from, not continuous with, standard speech.