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Abstract
Abstract Although AI language technologies are typically presented as future-oriented technological innovation, none of the elements of machine learning technologies are unaffected by the cultural and historical contexts of their emergence. This is particularly true in the case of language constructions and the materialization of language in AI. Examination of computational language culture reveals striking continuities to concepts of language and their materialization in technology settings in the history of European colonialism. Based on an in-depth analysis of how languages were materially produced in colonialism and are treated in AI technologies, we show the strong colonial continuities in language materialization processes to this day. This also indicates the crucial role that language materializations play in the construction and maintenance of power and social order in a global realm.
Highlights
From the beginning of our examination of computational language culture, we were struck by the parallels between concepts of language in the history of European colonialism and in machine learning technology settings
It illustrates that epistemologies and linguistic practices are deeply intertwined with concepts of society, community, and personhood, and that constructions of language play an important role in legitimizing political practices that legislate human difference (Errington 2008)
We discussed the continuities that exist between colonial language making practices and those found in the machine learning language industry, and how this impacts global social power structures and the understanding of language
Summary
Colonialism, defined as “the transformations wrought by high modern empire” through violence and displacement (Bayly 2016) entails “a relationship of domination between an Indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of foreign invaders” (Osterhammel 1997: 16ff). Many of these communities being targeted are based in the Global South Those who finance such endeavors present the support for constructing language technologies that allow for collecting data, surveilling digital interaction, and influencing human behavior as ‘philanthropic’ activity (see e.g., https://lacunafund.org/funders/ or https://ventures.jhu.edu/support-jhtv/ (the latter have co-funded the NLLB project discussed below)). This suggests that discourses and activities concerning language in computational settings are still influenced by economic and political aspirations and continue to make use of discourses of ‘care’ that position people outside of the Global North as in need of ‘development’ and those in the Global North as superior to justify their activities. We discuss the continuities between colonial and AI language culture in the material making of language
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