Beyond the Front Yard: The Dehumanizing Message of Accent-Altering Technology

• Published in: Applied linguistics 2024-06, Vol.45 (3), p.553-560
• Main Authors: Payne, Ameena L, Austin, Tasha, Clemons, Aris M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0142-6001; 1477-450X
• DOI: 10.1093/applin/amae002

Over the past decade, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, as it relates to the speech and voice recognition industry, has established itself as a multibillion-dollar global market, but at whose expense? In this forum article, we amplify the current critiques of the architectures of large language models being used increasingly in daily life. Our commentary exposes emerging AI accent modification technology and services as agents of racial commodification and linguistic dominance, as it rests on the perceived superiority of standardized US English. We discuss our concern for such services leaching into academia. We argue that this technology follows a standardized language framework, which poses a fundamental problem of being informed by purist monolingual principles. These principles often help to perpetuate and maintain harmful raciolinguistic ideologies that result in language discrimination and the continual framing of the language practices of racially minoritized speakers as deficient. Thus, we write this piece with the intent to expose the fabricated humanity of accent modification technology whose existence perpetuates capitalism’s reliance on dehumanization for economic advancement and the legacy and reproduction of white language superiority.