An interesting, relatively short discussion about using AI chatbots as tools for revitalizing endangered languages. The upshot is that, if it's going to be done at all, it needs to be done very, very carefully and only by or in close collaboration with the community that actually uses a given language. But there are an awful lot of details to work through, and this discussion is really tip-of-the-iceberg level. (Personally, I'm deeply skeptical of the value of "AI" tools for projects like these, and I'm not really convinced that the payoff is likely to be worth the effort. That's without even mentioning the ecological cost of "AI". Still, the discussion is interesting even if just in terms of the ethics involved and the particular complications of working with endangered languages.)

https://endangeredlanguages.com/story/ask-elp-ethical-ai

#EndangeredLanguages #AI #IndigenousLanguage

University of Alberta: U of A linguist collaborates with community to preserve endangered language. “The structure of Sáliba, an Indigenous language spoken in Colombia, is still not well understood. But a number of audio recordings that include narratives, songs and procedural texts — along with handwritten annotations — made by Colombian linguist Jon Landaburu in the late 1960s could help […]

Registration is open for 2026 Cherokee Language classes and I must make a decision on which level to start back at AHHHHHH 😅

#indigenouslanguage