Conférence de Cecily Raynor (McGill U) @ DHSI

The final Institute lecture of DHSI 2026 will be given by our member Cecily Raynor (McGill University). Her talk is entitled « AI Beyond English: Regional Language Models and Global Knowledge Production”:

This talk explores the growing emergence of regional large language models (LLMs) and their implications for digital humanities research, multilingualism, and global knowledge production. While contemporary AI systems are often framed as universal technologies, they are deeply shaped by linguistic, cultural, economic, and geopolitical asymmetries. In response, a growing number of initiatives across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe are developing regionally grounded AI models designed to address questions of language representation, cultural specificity, and technological sovereignty. Drawing on examples including LatAmGPT, Laxta, SEA-LION, Jais, and other regional initiatives, this lecture examines how these projects challenge dominant assumptions about scale, neutrality, and universality in AI development. It also considers the implications of these models for digital humanities research, including multilingual textual analysis, cultural preservation, translation, and computational approaches to local knowledge systems. The talk ultimately argues that digital humanities scholars are uniquely positioned to contribute to ongoing debates about AI ethics, linguistic diversity, cultural memory, and the future of global technological infrastructures.

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 16 juin 2026 à 14 h 12 min.