{"id":982,"date":"2025-06-01T08:06:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T06:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/?p=982"},"modified":"2025-06-01T08:06:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T06:06:48","slug":"ai-and-the-english-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/?p=982","title":{"rendered":"AI and the English language"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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I\u2019m often asked by my students which type of English is better, UK or US English. My response is: \u201cEither. Be consistent.  If you\u2019re familiar with both, then think of the recipients, and use the one they prefer\u201d. This advice is taken seriously only for a short while, as the US English dominates the world, remarkably in entertainment and artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Louro, C R  (2025), \u201cAI systems are built on English \u2013 but not the kind most of the world speaks\u201d (https:\/\/research-repository.uwa.edu.au\/en\/publications\/ai-systems-are-built-on-english-but-not-the-kind-most-of-the-worl<\/a>). She estimates that 90% of the training data for current generative AI systems stem from American English. This is not surprising because the United States has been in the forefront in the development of the Internet, as demonstrated by its tech giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not only the UK English that is corrected, replaced, or scraped from the web that is based on US media, software, and platforms. For the purpose of this article, I posted to Mistral AI this statement — \u201cThe recce was an outcome of an enquiry into organised crime\u201d. This is its suggested version:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Le Chat \u2013 Mistral AI is a French company headquartered in Paris. French students learn British English, but this is overtaken by US English once they\u2019re out of school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I requested ChatGPT for the same thing, and it gave me this suggestion: \u201cThe reconnaissance was conducted as a result of an inquiry into organised crime\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecce\u201d is an informal Australian, British, and Canadian word which refers to a military observation or the process of visiting and quickly looking around a place in order to find out information about it; Americans use \u201crecon\u201d. The latter spell organise with a \u201cz\u201d and enquiry with an \u201ci\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have friends and family in Singapore – a former British colony and member of the Commonwealth – whose English, known as Singlish, is often dismissed by AI. Its unique syntax and vocabulary are systematically ignored, and their pronunciation is \u201ccorrected\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of U.S. English in AI systems undermines linguistic diversity, which is sad because languages are more than just tools for communication. They carry cultural knowledge, identity, and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, next time your software or phone prompts you to \u201ccorrect\u201d your spelling or replace your words, ask yourself: Is my English being excluded? (That\u2019s why it is still important to learn correctly the rules of grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and sentence structuring).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If an AI chatbot fails to understand what you say, ask yourself why your English has been excluded? Don\u2019t take it personally. An accent is part of one\u2019s identity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m often asked by my students which type of English is better, UK or US English. My response is: \u201cEither. Be consistent.  If you\u2019re familiar with both, then think of the recipients, and use the one they prefer\u201d. This advice is taken seriously only for a short while, as the US English dominates the world, … Continue reading AI and the English language<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,2,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-language","category-society","category-values-and-principles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roladesocietalblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}