Linguist calls for diversifying languages
A linguist at the Linguistics Studies Biennial Conference (LSBC) at Kuwait University has called for diversifying languages in the programming field to make room for other languages to flourish. Dr. Teresa Lynn of Mohammad bin Zayed University, UAE, was giving a lecture on “Safeguarding our languages in the AI Revolution,” examining “the role of linguistic studies in ensuring that our languages are not forgotten” during the emergence of generative AI platforms.
Dr. Lynn pointed out English as being the predominant language used in programming systems, labeling them as “Anglo-centric.” “In bilingual societies, the priority and preference go to digitally supported languages,” English, she added. English would receive the most attention, while other languages would be threatened. Dr. Lynn championed the idea of diversity in programming fields. In order to safeguard other languages from the risk of neglect and underdevelopment, Dr. Lynn recommended “moving tech companies away” from English-majority-speaking countries. She championed the idea of diversity in computer programming.
Dr. Karim Ibrahim (Gulf University of Science and Technology, Kuwait) talked about “Using AI classifiers to Identify AI-assisted Plagiarism: The Terminator versus the Machines,” a comparative study on the detection of AI-generated texts with plagiarism detection platforms. Plagiarism checker websites and programs cannot differentiate between what is written by humans and what is generated by AI, which “is becoming more humanlike in generating texts,” according to Dr. Ibrahim. He mentioned the integration of AI- detection software into plagiarism checkers to “effectively discriminate between human-written texts and AI-generated texts.”
Dr. Ibrahim stated that the use of generative AI in academia is a violation of academic integrity. AI cannot be rejected; therefore, proper training in generative AI is the key to ethical and responsible utilization in classrooms and other workspaces, concluded Dr. Ibrahim. AI-Detection software programs vary in detection accuracy, with the highest degree of accuracy being 89 percent (OpenAI), while other programs are as low as 40 percent accurate in detecting AI-generated texts. The two-day event was organized by Kuwait University and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), featuring lectures and workshops by visiting professors and local researchers.