Language in the Human-Machine Era

An interdisciplinary exploration of interaction and language use in the new human-machine era.

New devices do more than simply transmit language: they can alter and augment it. This blurs our conventional understanding of language and gives rise to a number of challenges—theoretical, moral, legal, and pedagogical. Language in the Human-Machine Era, edited by Dave Sayers, Maggie Glass, Helen Kelly-Holmes, and Robert Fuchs, explores the emerging features of language in this human-machine era. The contributors discuss not only the benefits of the new technologies, but also the risks and inequalities, which are often of little concern to tech companies or their shareholders. They also suggest ways forward that are more equitable and inclusive.

Contributors examine two major trends of the new era: Speaking through technology, e.g., when AI translates our words into another language in real time, in our own voice; and speaking to technology, as when we have lifelike conversations with our smart devices. Both trends have enormous consequences for our understanding of interaction and language use. The chapters all follow the same format, facilitating comparisons, for example, between the current “digital era” and the coming “human-machine era.”