“Language in the Human-Machine Era”: scientists from every continent join forces to predict how new technologies will change our languages and communication¹

EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(English European Cooperation in Science and Technology, COST)

“Language in the Human-Machine Era”: how will new forms of language technology change our communication and language itself?

The “human-machine era” is coming soon: a time when technologies will be directly connected to our senses, and we will no longer be limited to mobile devices alone. Smart glasses and headphones will be able to translate another person’s words, making it seem as though that person were speaking to us in our language. But technologies will not only mediate what we see, hear, and say in real time—they will engage in increasingly complex conversations with us. The newly created research network “Language in the Human-Machine Era” (Language in the Human-Machine Era) (LITHME), whose members come from 52 countries, is investigating how constantly evolving technologies may change our everyday use of language and language itself. LITHME has published an open-access report (open access report), which includes insights from dozens of specialists in language technologies and linguistic research.

“LITHME is about the future. It’s about new technologies that are just around the corner, which will change how we use language—how we talk, find information, and interact with computers,” says the network’s chair, Dave Sayers (University of Jyväskylä, Finland).

Based on current and anticipated technological changes, two inevitable shifts in human communication can be described: speaking through technologies and speaking with technologies. The first means that wearable devices will actively participate in our conversations. “Soon we will no longer look at the mobile phones in our hands—information will appear before our eyes through small glasses. Together with new smart headphones, we will see and hear additional information about the world around us: basic things, such as directions for a journey, and advan-

¹ Information has already been published on the website www.manokrastas.lt.

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more content, such as automatic translations from other languages. Our own words will be enhanced, refined, translated and subtitled as we speak; and other people will see and hear this,” explains D. Sayers.

“We will also talk to chatbots (English chatbots) on screens and realistic-looking characters in next-generation virtual reality. The latter will be much smarter than today’s chatbots, ready for complex conversations—to help think through problems, discuss plans, offer comfort or celebrate success,” says D. Sayers, adding: “All this has a huge impact on language.”

What will these changes in communication mean for people identifying with particular languages or switching between them? How will they affect the way we learn languages, translate texts, or write and interpret laws? Could heavy reliance on real-time language technologies change the structure of language? In the long term, could changes in brain–machine interfaces supplement or even replace language? These are some of the questions LITHME is examining.

Unique collaboration between linguists and technologists

A four-year networking project funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (English the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, COST) began in October 2020. It currently includes members from all 27 EU member states and representatives from 25 other countries on every continent. LITHME aims to bridge the gap between linguists and technology experts, enabling the former to benefit from greater technological insight and the latter to better understand the potential linguistic and societal consequences of emerging technologies.

There are eight working groups representing different areas of language research: “Computational linguistics” (English Computational linguistics), “Language and law” (English Language and law), “Language rights” (English Language rights), “Language diversity, vitality and endangerment” (English Language diversity, vitality and endangerment), “Language learning and teaching” (English Language learning and teaching), “Ideologies, beliefs, attitudes” (English Ideologies, beliefs, attitudes), “Language work, language professionals” (English Language work, language professionals) and “Language variation” (English Language variation). Members of each working group contributed to the foresight report “The Dawn of the Human-Machine Era” (English The Dawn of the Human-Machine Era), published on May 19.

The report describes the current state of various language technologies and their likely future trajectories across written, spoken, haptic and signed language modalities. “This is the result of a unique collaboration,” says

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Sviatlana Höhn (University of Luxembourg, Belgium), LITHME vice-chair, co-author and editor of the report. “LITHME brings together people from different areas of language work. Usually, these people do not talk to one another. We can see the first results of this exchange of ideas in our foresight report: we were able to capture diverse opinions and facts in one document, prepared by researchers who otherwise would never have produced a publication together. This helps us learn from one another, and from other communities.”

Technologies will progress unevenly across languages

The publication is intended to be distinctive and accessible, for language and technology specialists as well as policymakers and the wider public. “We show how various new technologies will rapidly change the way we use language. We discuss the software that enables these new developments, as well as consumer devices such as augmented-reality glasses and immersive virtual-reality environments. We hope to form a clear picture of how all this contributes to a major transformation in the way we communicate,” says D. Sayers, who was also one of the report’s authors and editors.

On the other hand, alongside exciting opportunities, there will also be challenges. The report discusses important issues such as inequality in access to technology, privacy and security, and new forms of fraud and crime.

“We will face familiar problems, such as who can afford the latest updates. These devices may also work less well in some languages and not work at all in others,” warns D. Sayers. “We want to invite people to think carefully about future technologies. Not everyone will benefit equally from these advances, and some will not benefit at all. Progress is generally fastest in the world’s major languages, such as English or Chinese. And sign languages are much harder for machines to understand, so progress will still be much slower. We hope to encourage our readers to watch for inequality when they see these sophisticated new devices.”

You can find the report “The Dawn of the Human-Machine Era” here: https://lithme.eu/publications. It was written by 52 researchers and edited by LITHME Chair Dave Sayers (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Vice-Chair Sviatlana Höhn (University of Luxembourg, Belgium) and Rui Sousa Silva, Chair of the LITHME Computational Linguistics Working Group (University of Porto, Portugal). You can learn more about LITHME’s activities here: https://lithme.eu.

The report was translated into Lithuanian by Dr. Pavel Skorupa

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