Language Sustainability in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract: This essay explores philosophical, scientific, and political questions raised by Generative Artificial Intelligence’s growing role in human language. Building on cutting-edge developments in the field, it critically examines how automated systems that produce written text challenge our traditional ideas of language production and ownership. In doing so, it introduces innovative approaches to understanding language in the age of AI, with a particular focus on cultural and political responsibility. Central to the discussion is an emerging concept of “language sustainability” that stems from the reflections in this essay. By highlighting the profound consequences of AI for human language, the essay places concrete demands on public-interest actors such as governments and universities, and on our communities as a whole, as custodians of human language, to preserve and enhance our personal and social linguistic agency, offering recommendations to re-align technological innovation in Generative AI with human language sustainability. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence. Languages. Sustainability. Technology. Politics.