The AI Revolution Is Crushing Thousands of Languages

Recently, Bonaventure Dossou learned of an alarming tendency in a popular AI model. The program described Fon--a language spoken by Dossou's mother and millions of others in Benin and neighboring countries--as "a fictional language." This result, which I replicated, is not unusual. Dossou is accustomed to the feeling that his culture is unseen by technology that so easily serves other people. He grew up with no Wikipedia pages in Fon, and no translation programs to help him communicate with his mother in French, in which he is more fluent.