Ask HN: Could AI drive adoption of the English language internationally?
I'm reading a lot about AI talent leaving for the US and we all know that new services/features often become available in English first. Could this drive English to become an even more dominant language in the world and maybe even overtake native languages in non English countries?
2 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 14.5 ms ] threadEnglish is the first language in history that's spoken by more non-native speakers than native speakers, which in turn might have an interesting impact in that previously ungrammatical (i.e. "wrong" by native standards) word and phrase usage by non-native speakers might be incorporated in the standard language.
In some communities (exhibit A: Hacker News, software engineering and software entrepreneurship communities) English not only is the lingua franca anymore but the de facto default language (in lieu of the local language).
This development originally started with the cultural sway the Anglosphere had - and still has, probably even more so today - but today is accelerated even more by information technology (which for various reasons is very US-centric) and software in particular. Pretty much as is the case with science, if you want to be successful in the software business you have to be able to understand English to some extent at least, even if it's just because the most relevant resources usually are available in that language.
As a side note: An interesting development I've come across more often recently is documentation for open source components in some areas being available either exclusively or at least primarily in Mandarin Chinese. So, perhaps that development might shift somewhat in future and if you're interested in specific areas you might need at least some command of that language, too.
Not only AI. Modern science is in the English language. If you need to be in science you need to know English.
P.S. English is not my native language.