Anirudh Week 1: An Analysis of the Modern Extension of Colonial Speech
In his 1986 collection of essays Decolonising The Mind, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o posits that the greatest weapon of colonialism wasn’t the rifle. It wasn’t the cannon nor the gunboat. It was the weaponization of language. He vividly describes the systemic tactics colonial powers used to strip down the native tongues of colonized children in favor of English, severing the children’s connections to their cultures, identities, and even self-worth. And even though these colonial empires have collapsed, the inherent framework of identity erasure has been fundamentally upgraded. Today, the maxim of colonial erasure has been repackaged by the algorithms of Artificial Intelligence.
Throughout the history of AI—whether we see it as a tool of objectivity or question it with suspicion—we cannot ignore that these systems are at their core built on data. Specifically however, they are built with massive datasets scraped from the Western, English-speaking internet. It is fundamentally tied to the biases of the Western canon. Thus, Artificial Intelligence models don’t simply process data, but amplify these existing systemic biases.
So when we consult an LLM to proofread our work, or utilize generative AI in drafting an email, it prioritizes a standardized flavor of Westernized syntax. Regional dialects, cultural idioms, and non-Western styles of rhetoric are flagged as being “incorrect” or being of “low quality”.
Just like how Thiong'o describes the punishments students faced when they wrote in their mother tongue, the modern digital world subtly coerces us to flatten our linguistic identities, as to be deemed “visible and valued” by the algorithm, one must write like the algorithm. Thus, we aren’t teaching machines to talk like each one of us, but rather teaching them to dictate who we are allowed to be.
Very enticing read! I love how you decided to refer to history instead of using a personal experience, it’s unique and it really shows the time you spent to share your message. I’ve never connected colonial restrictions and rules to the restrictiveness of AI, so this was eye-opening for me! The concept of AI quietly making us less unique and creative linguistically reminds me a lot of “The Antithesis of the Olympics: Using AI to Write a Fan Letter” article that we just annotated which is funny. The ending is especially good as it gives us something to think about and leaves us with a new perspective of what language subconsciously does to our personal thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWow; do you like US history a lot? I sure do. I read a great book, *Between Earth and Sky*, which is historical fiction. It centers around Native Americans and growing up around White people and boarding schools. In the book, it reflects the effects you shared in your blog about Native languages being erased in favor of the English language. Language is indeed a core part of everyone's identity, and when a certain one is encouraged more than others, that can greatly change a lot of what people consider "standard" and "best." I am impressed by the ability of English to dominate world communications and shape our future via AI models!
ReplyDeleteHi Anirudh! I really enjoyed reading about how you connected Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s ideas about language to how AI affects language today. I especially liked when you stated how AI can “flatten our linguistic identities”, as a significant reason why I avoid using AI is due to my fear of it changing how I express myself through writing without me even realizing. Your writing also allowed me to really think about how we change how we write based on what connects with different audiences. I found how you compared historical colonialism and modern AI interesting because it demonstrates how the influence of language has changed over time.
ReplyDeleteHi Anirudh, I found your topic to be both interesting and familiar. I have seen a project recently that mapped what languages are being used for AI datasets and the extent to which different countries are able to use AI. It contained findings similar to those in your blog, where English made up most of the data and Western countries had a larger access to AI tools. I also read about some of the colonial techniques you mentioned in the beginning in history classes, such as the schooling systems in North America that took Native American children away from families, forcing them to speak English and follow European customs. It is interesting to see that even though the West is at the forefront of AI and other countries use it less, as these countries’ citizens start to use AI increasingly, they will be spending more time with English and Western bias. I have never considered how the way AI grades and corrects our work is largely defined by Western standards, and the problem of people having different syntax is definitely a real issue when interacting with AI in the way you mentioned. Not only does it push people towards a Western style of writing, it gives an advantage to people who already use that style since they are better equipped to use AI tools to enhance their work. Your blog contains new ideas that I would love to follow up on in my free time, and I like how they are introduced using history, allowing people to use their background knowledge to bridge gaps. I agree that AI is encouraging people to use a Western style of writing, and I think that if the AI bubble does not pop, people are slowly going to continue leaning that way in writing and we will see a loss of identity in some literature.
ReplyDeleteThis was an engaging entry to read, Anirudh—I always like something that invites me to think about aspects of the world and myself through different lenses. I always love learning more about the history, the opinions, and the sentiments of the post-colonial field of study, mostly because I want to open myself to more perspectives regarding this aspect.
ReplyDeleteThis blog entry reminds me of a phenomenon I have been noticing across my feed on social media platforms: while AI and other, should I say, Eurocentric users online tend to disregard regional dialects and slang (especially AAVE) as inferior, they still adopt terms from those areas in their speech. For example, the word “chopped,” which originates from the AAVE used in the New York and New Jersey era, has since been part of the standard dialect on the internet. While the term may have first been used in a mocking way, the progression of the term into post-irony usage has occurred quickly. I suppose one could make the argument that the very algorithms attempting to discard certain quirks of language in favor of a Westernized version are also the ones preserving and maintaining their meaning in the English language due to their vast usage, research, and discourse by the internet.