Former Icelandic PM Katrín Jakobsdóttir warns that AI and English dominance threaten the Icelandic language
Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland’s former prime minister, has issued a stark warning that the Icelandic language, spoken by only about 350,000 people, could be wiped out in as little as a generation due to the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the encroachment of the English language.
Jakobsdóttir, who stepped down last year to run for president, stated that Iceland is undergoing a "radical" change in language use. She noted that fewer people are reading in Icelandic and more are consuming and speaking English, a trend exacerbated by how AI language models are primarily trained on English-dominant data.
The Threat of Digital Dominance
The former PM and her co-author, Ragnar Jónasson, agree that the language is in grave danger, citing that young people are "absolutely surrounded by material in English" on social media and other platforms. Jónasson added that Icelandic children are "even conversing in English sometimes between themselves."
Jakobsdóttir emphasized the responsibility to preserve Icelandic, one of the world’s least-altered languages, stating: “Having this language that is spoken by so very few, I feel that we carry a huge responsibility to actually preserve that.” She drew a historical parallel to the period of Danish rule until 1918, when Danish influence rapidly impacted Icelandic, though Icelanders managed to reverse the change through a strong national movement.
She called for a "stronger movement right now" to discuss the fundamental question of why Icelanders want to preserve their language, believing the “fate of a nation” is tied to how it treats its language, as language shapes thought.
Proactive AI Strategy
Despite the danger, Iceland has been "quite proactive" in pushing for AI to be usable in Icelandic. Earlier this month, Iceland’s Ministry of Education announced a partnership with AI company Anthropic for a national AI education pilot. This initiative is one of the world's first national AI education pilots, giving hundreds of teachers across Iceland access to AI tools.
During her time in government, Jakobsdóttir recognized the "threats and dangers of AI" and stressed the importance of ensuring that Icelandic texts and books were used to train these models. The goal is to prevent "digital death" by creating an environment where Icelandic remains relevant in the face of technological change.
