The material making of language as practice of global domination and control: continuations from European colonialism to AI

Although AI language technologies are typically presented as future-oriented technological innovation, none of the elements of machine learning technologies are unaffected by the cultural and historical contexts of their emergence. This is particularly true in the case of language constructions and the materialization of language in AI. Examination of computational language culture reveals striking continuities to concepts of language and their materialization in technology settings in the history of European colonialism. Based on an in-depth analysis of how languages were materially produced in colonialism and are treated in AI technologies, we show the strong colonial continuities in language materialization processes to this day. This also indicates the crucial role that language materializations play in the construction and maintenance of power and social order in a global realm.