How Machines Came to SpeakIn How Machines Came to Speak Jennifer Petersen constructs a genealogy of how legal conceptions of speech have transformed over the last century in response to new media technologies. Drawing on media and legal history, Petersen shows that the legal category of speech has varied considerably, evolving from a narrow category of oratory and print publication to a broad, abstract conception encompassing expressive nonverbal actions, algorithms, and data.