Will AI Destroy Languages?
Human beings draw meaning out of things, essentially that’s what makes us get up everyday to participate in the business of life. Meaning can come in many different facets: family, religion, work, hobbies.
These are just a few examples of meaningful activities available. This meaning helps us to overcome obstacles and in most cases it simply rids our lives from boredom.
Language poses a big challenge for a world which is so interconnected. Humans superiority over other creatures is our ability to communicate and transfer information among each other accurately and quickly. That is how we have shaped this modern world.
English is the language which stands at the centre of this global transformation, it is the medium through which vital information, books, academic papers are organised. The inability to speak English in the 21st Century is a huge handicap towards ones career and even pleasurable experiences such as travel, movies etc.
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AI has raised an important question, which wasn’t even on the table a few years ago. Will language teachers lose their jobs, and be replaced with AI? Will learning languages become obsolete due to the powerful performance of these applications such as real-time translation software.
There are many sceptics who think tools such as Chat GPT or Bard AI will destroy the desire to learn languages. While I do acknowledge that they pose a serious threat, I’m leaning towards the optimistic side of this argument.
Here are 3 reasons why AI won’t destroy language learning:
1.Human Interaction: This is the strongest defence against AI’s domination. Humans need social interaction it lies at the core of our existence, without human contact our lives feel empty and meaningless. Teachers also offer motivation to overcome struggles and difficulty, this is an emotional factor which cannot be imitated by machines.
2.Cultural Exchange: Language makes cultural exchange much more richer. E.g. Reading a travel guide about a place vs travelling to the place and interacting with natives. This is more than enough motivation for a person to start learning a new language.
AI is a means to an end, it will be a tool that people use to reach their goal of finally interacting with real people.
3.Complexity: For anyone who has learned a second language, they will understand that some words, sentences and ideas are simply untranslatable. AI tools could struggle to explain the complex nuances within a language which only living natives understand.
Until AI can develop consciousness I think it won’t be able to transfer the secret codes embedded in language, something which all Human beings have.
Language is a living, breathing thing which evolves with time. People bring it to life with their unique experiences and these cannot be replicated by machines.
In Conclusion
It’s evident that Modern life is progressing at a rapid speed, even though AI will destroy the teaching of a few languages which don’t fall into the category of mainstream popularity.
There will always be a demand for English pedagogical instruction regardless of AI’s development because humans are social creatures by nature. AI’s capability is nowhere near the stages whereby we would prefer a conversation with a robot over a real human being.
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I’m leaning towards the more optimistic side that AI won’t destroy language learning because like any technology which came before it, it is merely a tool which I think can amplify our learning. If the computer was a bicycle for the mind, then AI is a rocket for the mind.
