Inaugural Lecture: Will Lamb

The future is uncertain for Gaelic and most of the world’s minority languages. Could cutting-edge language technologies be the key to their survival? English speakers can now hold real-time spoken conversations with apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. What breakthroughs are needed to get us to that point for Gaelic? How might such a transformation affect language revitalisation efforts, for better and for worse?

This lecture introduces modern language technology to a general audience, showcasing ongoing research involving Gaelic at the University of Edinburgh. It then addresses tensions in collaborations between big tech and minority language communities, such as navigating data ownership and cultural preservation. Finally, it looks ahead, considering how AI might help revitalise not just Gaelic, but other minority languages.

Will Lamb was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He completed a degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 1993 and spent two years as an RA on a Johns Hopkins led research project on sleep disorders and biometrics. In 1995, after taking an interest in Gaelic and traditional music, he went to Nova Scotia and spent an academic year at St Francis Xavier University.

Will began his postgraduate study at the University of Edinburgh in 1996, taking an MSc in Celtic Studies. His dissertation was on the development of the Gaelic news register and was supervised by Rob Ó Maolalaigh. He started a PhD in Linguistics the following year. In Jan 2000, nearing the end of his PhD, he moved to North Uist to take up a lecturing position at Lews Castle College Benbecula (University of the Highlands and Islands). He is credited with initiating the successful music programme at Lews Castle College. Will finished his PhD in 2002, and it was published in 2008 as 'Scottish Gaelic Speech and Writing: Register Variation in an Endangered Language'.

Will was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2017 and to Personal Chair in Gaelic Ethnology and Linguistics in 2022. His research interests span music, linguistics, traditional narrative and language technology. He is known, in particular, for his work on formulaic language, traditional music, Gaelic grammatical description and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Most of his recent work has been in Gaelic NLP, and he recently finished an MSc in Speech and Language Processing (University of Edinburgh).

Browse Professor Lamb's staff profile on the University of Edinburgh website

Inaugural Lectures are public talks by newly-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh. The lectures are free and open to all.

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Please note that this lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It will not be live streamed - tickets are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem.

Host or Publisher School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures