Shaping the Future of Endangered and Low-Resource Languages---Our Role in the Age of LLMs: A Keynote at ECIR 2024

Abstract

Isidore of Seville is credited with the adage that it is language that gives birth to a people, and not the other way around , underlining the profound role played by language in the formation of cultural and social identity. Today, of the more than 7100 languages listed, a significant number are endangered. Since the 1970s, linguists, information seekers and enthusiasts have helped develop digital resources and automatic tools to support a wide range of languages, including endangered ones. The advent of Large Language Model (LLM) technologies holds both promise and peril. They offer unprecedented possibilities for the translation and generation of content and resources, key elements in the preservation and revitalisation of languages. They also present threat of homogenisation, cultural oversimplification and the further marginalisation of already vulnerable languages. The talk this paper is based on has proposed an initiatory journey, exploring the potential paths and partnerships between technology and tradition, with a particular focus on the Occitan language. Occitan is a language from Southern France, parts of Spain and Italy that played a major cultural and economic role, particularly in the Middle Ages. It is now endangered according to UNESCO. The talk critically has examined how human expertise and artificial intelligence can work together to offer hope for preserving the linguistic diversity that forms the foundation of our global and especially our European heritage while addressing some of the ethical and practical challenges that accompany the use of these powerful technologies. This paper is based on the keynote I gave at the 46th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2024). As an alternative to reading this paper, a video talk is available online. 1 Date: 26 March 2024.