A/80/278 form of its emotional expression. AI technologies cannot replicate the cultural significance and emotions. 46 27. The opacity surrounding the criteria or data used by big technology companies in order to suggest certain works to users makes the future bleaker. This lack of transparency is a common feature of most major cultural content distribution platforms. A ray of light is TV5MondePlus, which uses AI to promote and support works that might otherwise be overlooked. By adapting the codes and interface logic of mainstream platforms, it actively leverages AI to promote cultural diversity and ensure greater visibility for a wider range of voices. 47 28. The increased use of AI also affects languages negatively. Cultural works can now be subtitled, dubbed or translated by AI systems alone – a feature referred to as automatic or automated translation – rather than through human intervention. AI tools can be used for language preservation and revitalization: for example, native speakers can be recorded so that audio content in their language can be generated, thereby facilitating transmission to new generations. However, such tools currently seem unable to faithfully reflect what creators express, including intention, sensitivity and nuances, as well as irony and sarcasm. “Cultural understanding and nonverbal communication are crucial in interpreting. Technology cannot adequately convey cultural nuances, body language, idiomatic expressions, and context-dependent meanings, leading to possible misinterpretations and subsequen t harm and infringement of rights.” 48 Automated translation indeed uses statistics and probabilities to suggest text in the target language; there is no real analysis or understanding of the conveyed message. Machines lack human judgment and – unlike the professional licensed interpreters acting under applicable laws – cannot be held legally accountable. 49 While AI facilitates access to documents, in a sense democratizing access to information, it also leads to linguistic impoverishment, that is, a reduction of actively used vocabulary, a simplification of syntactic structures, stylistic homogenization and the gradual erasure of regional or social language variations. Efforts to improve AI tools in languages other than English are very slow, as they are not as profitable. Minority and Indigenous languages are especially affected. 29. All these issues severely impact cultural rights, particularly the right to participate in cultural life in one’s own language, as well as the rights to create and distribute works in any given language. This creates fears of exclusion and the disappearance of linguistic diversity from the digital environment and, in the long run, in the physical environment too. D. Exacerbating the divide: limiting the right to participate in cultural life 30. Prevailing inequalities limit the ability of certain individuals and groups, particularly those belonging to marginalized communities, including those living in poverty and in remote areas, to use AI tools in a meaningful and self -empowering manner to create and produce their works in all fields of human creativity. For many __________________ 46 47 48 49 25-12403 Submission by Prakhar Singh, Samrudh Chirkankshit Bulani, Hargun Kaur, Amishi Jain, Shatrupa Sharma and the Center for Advanced Studies in Cyber Law and Artificial Intelligence, pp. 6 and 7. See https://tv5mondeplus.com. Submission by the International Federation of Translators, p. 3. Submission by the Czech Association of Interpreters and Translators, p. 3. 11/21