Artificial intelligence and its generative tools hold out dual prospects when it comes to the use and preservation of cultures and languages. The AI tools could be both a superhighway toward a mutually useful convergence of ideas and cultures and a perilous edge of extinction for native cultures and languages.
The importance of languages in the context of cultural identity and creative expressions as well as preserving history could hardly be overstated. Just look at the information gleaned from deciphering the language of the Sumerian Tablets and how it has revealed the history of the Persian King Cyrus.
When the Internet rolled out a new digital world for its users in the 1990s mainly through English language, the proponents of linguistic diversity and cultural richness feared that other languages would be relegated to a point where they might die out.
It’s not that the onset of digital era that threatened to put a sudden end to the languages but it is a combination of factors at this point in time that underlines the need for preserving languages. The widespread use of technologies, especially with the emergence of the social media platforms and the inescapable reliance on AI generative tools from information to creativity to advanced research in one dominant language are collectively seen as precipitating the demise of already fragile languages.
The forms of globalization that preceded the digital revolution like global access to films, literature, music and news channels and interdependence through trade were already acting as inducements to homogenize cultures under one broad harmonizing sweep of urbanized and globalized way of life.
For example, experts note that if the AI tools and platforms continue to have a wealth of data in one language, some native language speakers and writers might feel compelled or tempted to carry out their research and translate their work in that language.
However, that arrival of highly advanced AI tools like Google Translate and equalizing creative work Apps in the last few years have opened up new possibilities for preservation of languages, new means of livelihood as well as new ways of native cultural expressions.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive gave a heartwarming news at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris that promises a new inclusive age of innovation.
“Using AI techniques, we added over 110 new languages to Google Translate last year, spoken by half a billion people around the world,” he said.
“That brings our total to 249 languages, including 60 African languages – more to come,” the tech pioneer told the gathering.
Back in 2022, Google introduced an ambitious program to build AI models capable of supporting the 1,000 most spoken languages worldwide.
Apart from translation, social media platforms like Facebook have also introduced icons and emojis with words from some of the major world languages like Hindi, Spanish, and Urdu. On the one hand it gives a psychological familiarity to the consumers or users of the platform. But on the other hand, it introduces new words that might be intermixed with native, regional or national languages and dialects that are written in different scripts. For example, words “Zabrdast” from Urdu and a thanking sign with both hands from the Indian culture are used by social media users in different parts of the world.
As for the diversification of linguistic expressions in Western or European languages, words have been assimilated from the current and past languages for a long time. For example, Latin, French and Spanish words are easily woven into English language. In the South Asia, the greatest example is the emergence of Urdu language from a wide-ranging mix of Turkish, Hindu, Punjabi, Arabic and Persian languages that has evolved over a great interface of cultures dating back to a millennium.
On the other end of the spectrum, some countries like China have their own versions of social media and business platforms. This could mean several things, keeping the external influences on the political thought and economic system away, protecting the national culture and languages or simply preempting any outside influences on the country.
The development of software in local languages could help the cause of their preservation as traditional media publications and art and literary works. For instance, work in the endangered languages displayed through performing arts could create opportunities to preserve and promote them.
According to Historica publication, tech companies’ efforts to preserve endangered languages include the use of Machine Translation and Language Models. As part of the effort, Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on extensive datasets to perform translations across a wide range of languages.
“Linguists and technologists are collaborating to collect data, build linguistic corpora, and design tools capable of processing and generating text in these at-risk languages.,” Historica said in a piece.
However, such an innovative approach that could help encourage language with the help of audio visual and written data faces a massive digital divide. According to Internet Society Foundation while there are over 7,000 languages spoken all over the world, more than 50 percent of the data available on the Internet is in English. This is particularly a huge challenge for languages already dwindling or facing extinction in their own place of origin.
Then there is the question of algorithms, which highlight content in the dominant English language. Additionally, dominance of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify means English-language content would top the searches.
As a result, the United States, home to the world’s biggest social media platforms and tech giants, has a critical advantage in media and entertainment fields.
Another dimension is the financial and economic promise that English-speaking people in different parts of the world like to use to earn money through technological innovation and services. The dominance of English language digital content partly explains why large English-conversant populations in India and Pakistan are quick to take advantage of artificial technologies and go for digital innovation. Yet Hindi and Urdu speakers tend to use a large number of English words in their everyday life.
In this scenario, lovers of French language have launched an initiative La Francophonie – which brings together 93 states and governments around the use of French and represents more than 320 million people worldwide. According to the United Nations, the initiative seeks ways to address the linguistic gap a centerpiece of its digital strategy.
The movement found a receptive hearing in Silicon Valley when at a UN Summit for the Future in September 2024, Sundar Pichai highlighted the need for A.I. to provide access to global knowledge in multiple languages.
“We’re working toward 1,000 of the world’s most spoken languages,” he pledged.
These efforts might sound ambitious as they are still in the early stages of preserving indigenous languages that face the risk of disappearing due to a variety of historical and contemporary reasons. While Google Translator and other similar machines and innovations give hope, such initiatives are just a start. Languages preserve culture and have long been considered a great source of power, creative expression and a proud symbol of a civilization.
Research in extant indigenous and endangered languages is still a far-off cry since machines have just starting translating the basic stuff, let alone infusing their work with cultural nuances. America’s iconic linguist Noam Chomsky says the use of Internet tools amounts to the biggest intellectual theft in the history of the world. Several experts and users have complained that ChatGPT and other generative AI tools like it sometimes come up with false or unverified information as they rehash and present content gathered from here and there as a service. Clearly, humans have their work cut out for themselves, they have much to do to make machines perform some of their genuinely thinking and creative functions including preservation of languages.
