A new report suggests that the advancement of technology could speed up the process of language disappearance. According to the United Nations, a language dies every two weeks, which is the fastest rate recorded in history, according to Forbes.
Fortune reported that many computers and phones are designed for English, so even people who speak other languages still type in English. The example Fortune used was Tamil, a language with 247 characters. While some technologists are building keyboards for Tamil speakers, many currently just type in English.
In the same way that technology can eliminate languages, it can also preserve them. Artificial intelligence tools can understand and copy the way humans communicate with each other. Many AI tools are only proficient in the internet’s most popular languages, including English.
Technology needs to include more languages to open up the job market for people worldwide. Business opportunities will also increase with fewer language barriers. Most apps currently translate fewer than 200 languages, but 7,000 languages are spoken around the world. Fortune also noted that about a third of humanity is not currently online—more than 5 billion people are online.
