Generative artificial intelligence interventions to English language

Purpose The paper explores the alignment of artificial intelligence (AI) with what seems to be a belief that language is a natural growth. We reflect back and look forward on George Orwell and C.S. Lewis, based on commonalities and differences that provide unique insights into the implications of generative AI on language development for learning. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a viewpoint based on a conceptual framework. Findings We explored three identified “interventions” of AI machine narratives, AI language models and AI language resources. These significant interventions are observed to be impacting language change and equity, at least in part, through unprecedented machine-led language change. There is no explicit evidence that language change is inequitable, but we need to be mindful of the ethics of AI. Orwellian control through generative AI not only raises issues of unprecedented change and associated equity in language change. C.S. Lewis (1960) identified how language endures but also how language represents societal meaning. Generative AI resonates with Orwell’s “surveillance state” (Orwell, 1946), and such generative AI has unprecedented challenges in the potential to bias language meaning. The increasing use of generative AI in language, and associated communications, may be integral to a larger paradox of a shift towards language being an instrument that is represented by unprecedent AI-driven change. Originality/value The paper is rooted in exploring the implications of AI for language, in the context of change. The research viewpoint is organised into three AI interventions that are AI machine narratives, AI language models and AI language resources.