Icelandic Language Faces Extinction Threat from AI and English Dominance

According to Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland's former Prime Minister, the Icelandic language is facing a grave threat of extinction within the next generation. Jakobsdóttir, who stepped down as PM last year to run for president, says Iceland is undergoing "radical" changes in language use, with more people reading and speaking English and fewer using Icelandic.

This trend is being exacerbated by the way AI language models are trained, Jakobsdóttir explains. She warns that "a lot of languages disappear, and with them dies a lot of value[and] a lot of human thought." Icelandic, spoken by only around 350,000 people, is among the world's least-altered languages, and Jakobsdóttir believes Iceland has a "huge responsibility" to preserve it.

However, she notes that young Icelanders are "absolutely surrounded by material in English, on social media and other media," contributing to the decline of the native tongue. Jakobsdóttir's co-author, Ragnar Jónasson, agrees that the language is in "grave danger" and that Iceland is "just a generation away from losing this language."

During her time in government, Jakobsdóttir said they recognized the "threats and dangers of AI" and the importance of ensuring Icelandic texts and books were used to train it. She believes governments should stay "very focused" on AI development to address these challenges.