This section of Imminent Readings delves into the intersection of AI and language in a multicultural and multilingual world.
Updated weekly (last update 25/03/25)
Writing As Transformation Writing is a deeply personal journey, varying vastly from one individual to another. For some, it’s a cherished communication tool; for others, it embodies life’s profound meaning. This essay explores the rich tapestry of writing, delving into its many stages and diverse forms. Discover the essence of writing and how it shapes our understanding of the world. Read the full essay on New Yorker
Policy Primer – Translating Safety While global AI safety initiatives are gaining momentum, the challenge of ensuring safety across diverse languages and cultures remains critical. Often overlooked in governance and research, safety alignment tends to focus on English, leaving non-English contexts vulnerable to security risks. Addressing this requires understanding both global and local contexts, yet most current solutions are language-specific. This Policy Primer highlights innovative strategies for bridging the language gap in AI safety, urging diverse, multilingual approaches to model training and data curation to ensure comprehensive safety standards. Read the full paper on Cohere
Should a Country Speak a Single Language? Languages are vanishing, often silently erased by power and progress. As globalization and political forces shape our world, some languages are pushed to the brink of extinction, while others dominate. Literary scholar Devy argues that true progress must empower people to preserve their languages, ensuring that India’s rich linguistic heritage is not lost. With the rise of Hindi in India, the nation’s linguistic diversity faces a critical threat. Read the full article on New Yorker
How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking? The hegemony that English has gained worldwide has had an impact on our way of thinking. As the language continues its expansion, the obvious question arises: will humanity be homogenized as a result? Read the full article on New Yorker
Cinquanta sfumature di nero In the eyes of the world, the Sudanese, who inhabit a vast country with numerous tribes and ethnic groups, are all black. The state’s name, Sudan, is the plural form of the Arabic word ‘aswad’, meaning ‘black’. However, Sudanese people rarely use this term to describe skin color. The only thing black here is the eggplant! In fact, the babaganoush – a cream made from eggplants – is known as ‘black salad’ in Sudan. When discussing skin color, however, fifty shades of black are employed. Read the full article on Internazionale
What Does a Translator Do? Imagine a journey through a mosaic of cultures, where each decision opens up a new path and there are no rules limiting exploration. This is the fertile ground in which translation operates, a creative dance that transcends the simple choice between words. This article explores the metamorphosis of the translator’s role from understated wordsmith to vital player in the historical and cultural narrative of the present. In an age dominated by automated translations, this perspective highlights the irreplaceable value of the human touch in keeping the communicative “force” of a work intact. Read the full article on the New Yorker
Please Pardon My Language This graphic novel delves into the unique and fascinating relationship between us and language. What drives our language choices? How do these choices evolve, shaped by the languages we speak and the lives we lead? Read the full graphic novel on New Yorker
We’re losing our digital history. Can the Internet Archive save it? Historians of the future may struggle to understand fully how we lived our lives in the early 21st century. Digital entropy, in fact, is challenging our history: a quarter of all web pages that existed at some point between 2013 and 2023 now don’t. Projects like the Internet Archive could save this situation: it’s the most ambitious digital archiving project in history, gathering 866 billion web pages, 44 million books, 10.6 million videos and more. Read the full article on BBC Future
The Multilingual Alignment Prism: Aligning Global and Local Preferences to Reduce Harm The concept of AI “alignment” raises a critical question: alignment to what? While AI systems are deployed globally, most safety measures are designed for homogeneous, monolingual environments, with an overemphasis on Western-centric data. This article examines the challenges of aligning AI to diverse languages and cultural preferences while minimizing both global and local harms. Read the full paper on Cohere
Words and Phrases that Make it Obvious You Used ChatGPT A Financial Review article questions whether the word “delve” is a telltale sign of AI-generated writing, presenting five examples of overused phrases that can signal ChatGPT’s influence. It emphasizes that while these terms aren’t off-limits, over-reliance on them can lead to generic output. The article offers practical tips for enhancing authenticity in your writing, encouraging the use of specific language and concrete examples to foster a genuine connection with readers and avoid the typical markers of AI-generated text. Read the full article on Medium
The Great AI Detection Dilemma Recent studies discovered that neither humans nor AI are able to detect human or machine interactions. These findings suggest that as AI language models become more sophisticated, the line between human- and AI-generated content is becoming increasingly blurred. But, does it really matter? In an increasingly AI-integrated world, the distinction between human and AI-generated content might become less relevant in many contexts. Read the full article on Psychology Today
An AI walks into a bar… Can artificial intelligence be genuinely funny? This article explores the ability of artificial intelligence to be funny. Through the experience of comedian Karen Hobbs, who brought some jokes written by a chatbot on stage, we try to understand if technologies based on data aggregation can produce effective jokes for humans. Read the full article on BBC
Political campaigns embrace AI to reach voters across language barriers In 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi harnessed the power of AI to triumph in a diverse nation of 1.3 billion people, where over 100 languages and dialects intertwine. This exemplifies a broader trend where LLM can ignite electoral campaigns in other countries, like the USA, with their transformative power. These technologies not only accelerate translations in all languages, even those with limited resources, but also empower the creation of diverse content tailored to specific ethnic communities. Read the full article on Rest of the World
Do Chatbots Dream of AI Poetry? Calvino, Madness and Machine Literature Can AI produce real art? On February 20, 2024 ChatGPT went mad, responding to even the simplest of queries with cryptic and incomprehensible messages. Some users, entertained by a rich and creative glossolalia of the chatbot, said ‘ChatGPT has entered its modernist poet era.’ James Vincent, through a study of modernist poetry tries to explain the artistic potential of the machines. Read the full article on Faber
Can you lose your native tongue? In this article, Madeleine Schwartz analyzes the difficult nature of a bilingual mind and explains how in certain circumstances it’s possible not only to learn more than one language, but also lose them. Talking in multiple languages isn’t an equilibrium where they coexist. Every language tries to attract all the attention to itself, and many factors contribute to remembering or not that language. Read the full article on The New York Times
The Māori saved their language from extinction. Here’s how. In New Zealand, in the last 150 years many efforts were made tolimit the use of indigenous languages in order to promote English. However, in the 1970s a movement took place which promoted the Maori languages at school. This initiative permitted the launch of a wide program of teaching and promoting culturally the indigenous languages nowadays, helping the preservation of these endangered languages. Read the full article on National Geographic
When A.I. fails the language test, who is left out of the conversation? A.I. technologies are tested on high resource languages such as English or Chinese, even if English first speakers are only the 5% of the world. We need to train languages also in local languages, to spread the use around the world and increase the pride of who we are. Read the full article on New York Times
Are We Learning to Speak AI? The Growing Influence of Artificial Language on Human Communication The increasing presence of AI language in our daily lives may lead to the emergence of new linguistic norms and conventions. As AI systems become more advanced and their outputs more human-like, we may begin to see the development of new forms of language that blend human and machine characteristics. This could result in the creation of new vocabulary, grammatical structures, and even entirely new languages that are optimized for human-machine communication. From a scientific perspective, the influence of AI language on human communication can be explained through the concept of linguistic accommodation. Read the full article on Morocco World News
Chhattisgarh moves to offer primary education in 18 local languages, dialects In Chhattisgarh, schools are planning to promote primary education in 18 local languages and dialects to motivate young people to attend. In this region, overall literacy is lower than the national average. This initiative is also a good way to preserve indigenous languages. Read the full article on the Indian Express
The AI project pushing local languages to replace French in Mali’s schools In 2023, French was declared to be no longer an official language in Mali, with a shift towards providing education in Bambara (the most widely spoken language in the country). There are several interesting elements at play: the role of AI in the post-colonial cultural transition of countries grappling with independence, AI in the empowerment of Indigenous languages (also exemplified by Brazil), a model based on the Western worldview of AI development, and the use of AI to ensure more efficient access to education worldwide. Read the full article on Rest of the World
Why AI needs to learn new languages AI’s most popular tool scores very highly (85%) when used in English but has far more difficulty when tested in other languages. This article delves into why AI must improve rapidly in other languages. Read the full article on The Economist
English still rules the world, but that’s not necessarily OK. Is it time to curb its power? In this article, our Imminent fellow Michele Gazzola focuses on linguistic justice and on the rule of English and how this is a blessing for many but a major disadvantage for many others. Read the full article on The Guardian
Prenatal experience with languages shapes the brain Infants quickly grasp language, yet the neural basis of their brain plasticity remains unclear. This study from the Univeristy of Padua reveals increased neural connectivity in newborns, especially when exposed to prenatal language, indicating early specialization for the native language. Read the full study on ScienceAdvances