Museum of Languages (In-Person)

We are approaching a tipping point for language.

As machine translation makes communication effortless, we must ask what kind of understanding it delivers. Do ideas pass between us intact, or are they subtly thinned of voice, texture, and intent?

Will languages fade as translation becomes seamless, or proliferate into a world of local idiolects where machines mediate between ever more diverse forms of speech? Will we all speak one language, or each our own and how will we preserve the vast cultural treasury of those we already have?

The Museum of Languages imagines a living space for this uncertainty: a place to celebrate linguistic diversity, to question what may be lost or transformed, to help understand the future of language in the age of AI and to decide how we should respond to this challenge AI poses to languages, communication and meaning.

Anna Aslanyan is a journalist, translator and public service interpreter. She contributes to the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and other UK-based publications. Her popular history of translation, , tells horizon-expanding tales of how translators altered the course of world events.

Economics and Ethics of AI Language Models:

Recent advances in natural language processing have brought to the fore the question of how to make AI language models work for the common good.

Economists have predicted that in the 21st century, AI translation will play a role similar to that played by railways in the 19th and airlines in the 20th. While AI tools are proving increasingly powerful, their benefits – like those of modern transport – don’t get fairly distributed across the world, leaving many exposed to the dangers of linguistic imperialism.

The talk will touch on several examples of language modelling, focusing on linguistic, economic and ethical aspects. How to stop AI from being used as an instrument of inequality? One potential answer is that language interoperability, currently viewed from a predominantly economic perspective, should be recognised as a universal human right.

In addition to the keynote talk, the event will feature a packed agenda with talks on three topics:

Translation: what does translation mean in the age of AI; does AI help, or destroy, our attempt to translate, will it allow us to talk across languages or denude our communication of meaning!

Speakers:

• Christophe Fricker - Associate Professor in German and Translation, University of Bristol
• Giulia Occhini - Research Associate, Language Technology Lab, University of Cambridge
• Andy Way - Co-Founder, ADAPT Centre and Emeritus Professor in Computing, Dublin City University

Diversity: are we doomed to have just one language in the future, will AI accelerate language extinction, or could it do the opposite, allow us all to speak different languages at the cost of making language cultureless.

Speaker:

• Fiona Jordan - Professor of Anthropology, University of Bristol

Museums: how can we preserve or celebrate languages, what might a museum or gallery of languages look like; can we preserve a language through translation, what do the languages of the past mean now.

• Conor Houghton - Associate Professor in Computer Science, University of Bristol
• Geraldine Parsons - Professor of Medieval Irish Language and Literature, University of Glasgow
• Richard Cole - Senior Lecturer in Digital Futures, University of Bristol
• Paul Merchant - Associate Professor in Latin American Film and Visual Culture, University of Bristol
• Tim Owen – Esperanto Association of Great Britain

This is a public event. All welcome.

Conor Houghton - Associate Professor in Computer Science

Emmanouil Tranos - Professor of Quantitative Human Geography

Jim Evans - Research Partnerships and Engagement Associate

Please look at our Code of Conduct for all online and in-person events organised by the JGI.

This event is part of Bristol Data Week 2026, organised by the Jean Golding Institute taking please from Monday 1 June – Friday 5 June 2026. Bristol Data Week is a university-wide umbrella event bringing together academia, industry, community organisations, policy makers and the public to explore the power of data science and AI in addressing real-world challenges.

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Host or Publisher Jean Golding Institute at the University of Bristol