A question of alignment – AI, GenAI and applied linguistics

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) in general, and Generative AI (GenAI) in particular, have brought about changes across the academy. In applied linguistics, a growing body of work is emerging dedicated to testing and evaluating the use of AI in a range of subfields, spanning language education, sociolinguistics, translation studies, corpus linguistics, and discourse studies, inter alia . This paper explores the impact of AI on applied linguistics, reflecting on the alignment of contemporary AI research with the epistemological, ontological, and ethical traditions of applied linguistics. Through this critical appraisal, we identify areas of misalignment regarding perspectives on knowing, being, and evaluating research practices. The question of alignment guides our discussion as we address the potential affordances of AI and GenAI for applied linguistics as well as some of the challenges that we face when employing AI and GenAI as part of applied linguistics research processes. The goal of this paper is to attempt to align perspectives in these disparate fields and forge a fruitful way ahead for further critical interrogation and integration of AI and GenAI into applied linguistics.