The psychology of AI-mediated communication across languages

Communication across languages is increasingly mediated by artificial intelligence (AI). This creates opportunities for people with different language backgrounds to communicate in their respective native languages. AI-mediated communication can therefore reduce cognitive effort, disfluency, and social stigma associated with speaking a non-native language. At the same time, non-native language use influences cognitive, emotional, and social processes that go beyond the accurate transmission of meaning. By affecting these processes and introducing new cues, AI-mediated communication could also have unintended effects on communication effectiveness and social evaluations between interlocutors. We examine the conditions under which these effects may help or hinder cross-linguistic interactions and identify directions for research on the psychology of cross-linguistic communication as AI language tools become prevalent.