NEW: watch our animations about future language technologies, and enter our big survey!

To find out more about the future technologies in our animations, take a look at our open access forecast report…

“Within the next 10 years, many millions of people will … walk around wearing relatively unobtrusive AR devices that offer an immersive and high-resolution view of a visually augmented world”
(Perlin 2016: 85)

What is LITHME?
LITHME is a COST Action network with members from every EU member state, plus a number of other countries outside the EU. Action chair: Dave Sayers (University of Jyväskylä).
Our aims
- To prepare language researchers for what is coming;
- To facilitate longer term dialogue between linguists and technology developers.
How will pervasive augmentation technology affect language in areas such as international law, translation, and other forms of language work? What will this mean for how people identify with specific languages? Could increasing reliance on real-time language technologies actually change the structure of language? Longer term, could developments in brain-machine interfaces serve to complement or even supersede language altogether? Linguistics will be far stronger for robust technological foresight, while developers will benefit from better understanding potential linguistic and societal consequences of their creations.
Meanwhile LITHME will shine a light on the ethical implications of emerging language technologies. Inequality of access to technologies, questions of privacy and security, new vectors for deception and crime; these and other critical issues would be kept to the fore. LITHME will equip linguists and stakeholders for the human-machine era.
Erasmus+ project born ‘thanks to LITHME’
Active networking within the LITHME COST action has helped to launch an Erasmus+ project focusing onaccent discrimination….
Grantees for Training School and STSM’s have been selected
Each year LITHME supports researchers and technology developers with funding opportunities, which are made possible with the…
STSM 2023 call for applications
COST Action Language In The Human Machine Era is accepting applications for Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs). NOTE THE DEADLINE:…
Two calls open for LITHME in-person events
As LITHME enters its third year, we are excited to announce two calls for fully-funded, in-person events. …
CONVERSATIONS – Examining language ideologies and possible effects on chatbot designs
LITHME members Sviatlana Höhn and Bettina Migge offered a two-hour group work on the topic of Attitudes, Preconceptions and Practices in Conversational…
STSM Interview – How technology can be used for analysing students’ feedback
At the end of each semester, once the students finish their courses, they are asked about the…