An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Deepshikha Behera (Digital Research Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025-26)
Understanding the ‘Low’ in ‘Low-Resource’ Languages: Decolonising AI
My presentation mediates into the networks of Generative AI as sites of learning and knowledge production. I question the latent homogenisation of differences across language-cultures in AI models that are trained on the experiences and epistemologies of the Global North. As Large Language Models are embedded into digital media platforms, questions regarding the production, acquisition and dissemination of knowledge become inevitable as they directly impact the (mis)representation of marginalised communities and the formation of digital solidarities. My project rethinks the manner in which these digital infrastructures acquire and control the dissemination of such knowledge, thus engaging with the ethical and socio-political impact of AI infrastructures on ‘low-resource’ and marginalised languages in the context of Global South. I assess the ways in which integration of orality and multimodal resources into the study of marginalised language-cultures that do not have a significant presence in the ‘written’ could be useful in our discussion on Decolonising AI.
Please join in-person, or click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81113670095
Passcode: 38bakW8E