Language, Communication, and Society in an Era of Disruptive Technologies

Language is at the centre of these changes. New technologies depend heavily on language for human–machine interaction, while people increasingly use digital platforms to create new forms of expression, identity and social relationships. Artificial intelligence can now generate texts, translate languages, imitate human conversation and process large amounts of linguistic information. At the same time, digital communication is producing new language practices involving shortened forms, emojis, memes, multimodal texts, code-switching and other emerging forms of expression.

However, technological change also presents serious challenges. Many indigenous and less-resourced languages remain poorly represented in digital technologies and artificial intelligence systems. The growing use of AI raises questions about authorship, originality, academic integrity, intellectual property and the future of human creativity. Social media and other digital platforms have also increased the speed at which misinformation, hate speech, harmful narratives and manipulated information can circulate across societies.