Multilingualism and AI: The Regimentation of Language in the Age of Digital Capitalism

Abstract

This article examines the effects of commercial digital language technologies on the regimentation of language. Language technologies based on the exploitation of large data sets—from machine translation and automatic text generation to digital voice assistants—are a particular form of human-made sign practice in which traditional language norms interact with the affordances of digital devices and the capitalist interests of those who design them. Such sociotechnological practices construct language hierarchies within the realm of commercially based language technology and can shape both dominant discourses about language in society and epistemologies of language in linguistics. The article focuses on interrelationships between digital language technology and metasemiotic interpretations of language that pertain to multilingualism, language variation, and language prestige. It examines languages as discursive constructs and reviews the role of media technology in shaping language ideology, showing that writing and print have had a crucial impact on modern language concepts. It draws on expert discourse and qualitative interviews with programmers and users and examines ideological effects of digital language technology and the potential epistemological reconfigurations of concepts of language that may emerge as a result.