Brilliant insight! Perhaps, Taushiro (indigenous to Peru according to Google) and non-Mandarian dialects of Chinese (among other languages) will become the loci, eventually, of creative endeavors and subversion of all types. Hmmmm. There is a short story or novel here . . .
I don’t foresee the death of English from AI overuse. Its roots are too deep and varied over the many centuries of its use. What we -will- see is a particular historical flavor of English in use for a certain length of time. After reading a couple pages of English text, I can usually make a guess about when it was written—not only from the spelling and vocabulary used, but from the tone and color of its narrative. The way the writer chooses to refer to other people, and the amount of courtly flourish in the syntax, for instance—both are signals of social standards that were important in the writer’s time. Similarly, historians are going to read texts from this time and say, ah yes, the great flattening of early-mid twenty-first century English. It’s happening, but yet I don’t despair. Perhaps it’s because I’m so old—I’m convinced by a long life of observation that the human mind is too vital, too raw, to stay strapped into a straitjacket of managerial-flavored AI impoverishment for very long. For every second-tier authors seduced by the ease of writing their way to fame using LLMs to write their books—there will also be writers like Sam Kriss who bend English, stretch it like Play-Doh, extend it into absurd wonder and joy, and provide true nourishment to the reader. We’re going through a phase, like we always do. But this will end, as it always does, when the next “end of civilization” ripens and breaks into our awareness. We’ll survive.
Excellent post as always, but what about AI Chinese models? Chinese is the second language in the world. Are we foreseeing the emergence of a kind of new-speak (remembering Orwell)? that we all will end speaking and writing: Algorithmic-English, Algorithmic-Spanish and so on. Who knows? Although Spanish is my native language, we all need the worldwide English even though is in danger of AI pollution
A very interesting point! My native Dutch must be even safer 😄
safer indeed!
Brilliant insight! Perhaps, Taushiro (indigenous to Peru according to Google) and non-Mandarian dialects of Chinese (among other languages) will become the loci, eventually, of creative endeavors and subversion of all types. Hmmmm. There is a short story or novel here . . .
There's more exploration than this essay, that's for sure (would love to read more)
I don’t foresee the death of English from AI overuse. Its roots are too deep and varied over the many centuries of its use. What we -will- see is a particular historical flavor of English in use for a certain length of time. After reading a couple pages of English text, I can usually make a guess about when it was written—not only from the spelling and vocabulary used, but from the tone and color of its narrative. The way the writer chooses to refer to other people, and the amount of courtly flourish in the syntax, for instance—both are signals of social standards that were important in the writer’s time. Similarly, historians are going to read texts from this time and say, ah yes, the great flattening of early-mid twenty-first century English. It’s happening, but yet I don’t despair. Perhaps it’s because I’m so old—I’m convinced by a long life of observation that the human mind is too vital, too raw, to stay strapped into a straitjacket of managerial-flavored AI impoverishment for very long. For every second-tier authors seduced by the ease of writing their way to fame using LLMs to write their books—there will also be writers like Sam Kriss who bend English, stretch it like Play-Doh, extend it into absurd wonder and joy, and provide true nourishment to the reader. We’re going through a phase, like we always do. But this will end, as it always does, when the next “end of civilization” ripens and breaks into our awareness. We’ll survive.
Excellent post as always, but what about AI Chinese models? Chinese is the second language in the world. Are we foreseeing the emergence of a kind of new-speak (remembering Orwell)? that we all will end speaking and writing: Algorithmic-English, Algorithmic-Spanish and so on. Who knows? Although Spanish is my native language, we all need the worldwide English even though is in danger of AI pollution
Que sabía Borges
A couple of things, I've heard