LITHME is a COST Action network with members from every EU member state, plus a number of other countries outside the EU. Action chair: Dave Sayers (University of Jyväskylä)

Our aims
  1. to prepare linguistics and its subdisciplines for what is coming
  2. to facilitate longer term dialogue between linguists and technology developers

How will pervasive augmentation technology affect language in areas such as international law, translation, and other forms of language work? What will this mean for how people identify with specific languages? Could increasing reliance on real-time language technologies actually change the structure of language? Longer term, could developments in brain-machine interfaces serve to complement or even supersede language altogether? Linguistics will be far stronger for robust technological foresight, while developers will benefit from better understanding potential linguistic and societal consequences of their creations.

Meanwhile LITHME will shine a light on the ethical implications of emerging language technologies. Inequality of access to technologies, questions of privacy and security, new vectors for deception and crime; these and other critical issues would be kept to the fore. LITHME will equip linguists and stakeholders for the human-machine era.

Collections in this community

Recent Submissions

  • The Dawn of the Human-Machine Era: A forecast of new and emerging language technologies 

    Sayers, Dave; Sousa-Silva, Rui; Höhn, Sviatlana; Ahmedi, Lule; Allkivi-Metsoja, Kais; Anastasiou, Dimitra; Beňuš, Štefan; Bowker, Lynne; Bytyçi, Eliot; Catala, Alejandro; Çepani, Anila; Chacón-Beltrán, Rubén; Dadi, Sami; Dalipi, Fisnik; Despotovic, Vladimir; Doczekalska, Agnieszka; Drude, Sebastian; Fort, Karën; Fuchs, Robert; Galinski, Christian; Galinski, Christian; Galinski, Christian; Gobbo, Federico; Gungor, Tunga; Guo, Siwen; Höckner, Klaus; Láncos, PetraLea; Libal, Tomer; Jantunen, Tommi; Jones, Dewi; Klimova, Blanka; Korkmaz, EminErkan; Maučec, Mirjam Sepesy; Melo, Miguel; Meunier, Fanny; Migge, Bettina; Mititelu, Verginica Barbu; Névéol, Aurélie; Rossi, Arianna; Pareja-Lora, Antonio; Sanchez-Stockhammer, C.; Şahin, Aysel; Soltan, Angela; Soria, Claudia; Shaikh, Sarang; Turchi, Marco; Yildirim Yayilgan, Sule; Bessa, Maximino; Cabral, Luciana; Coler, Matt; Liebeskind, Chaya; Kernerman, Ilan; Rousi, Rebekah; Prys, Cynog (2021)
    New language technologies are coming, thanks to the huge and competing private investment fuelling rapid progress; we can either understand and foresee their effects, or be taken by surprise and spend our time trying to ...