This paper proposes the Trans-Babelism Theory to interpret the shifting dynamics between English and global multilingualism in the age of AI. For decades, English has served as the modern Tower of Babel symbolizing both unity and inequality in global communication. Yet AI-driven translation, speech recognition, and generative language models are now dissolving linguistic boundaries, creating the possibility of a post-lingua-franca world. Trans-Babelism argues that humanity is entering a stage where technology transcends Babel rather than reconstructing it: algorithms mediate understanding directly across languages, redefining what shared meaning means. However, the transformation remains paradoxical. While AI promises to democratize communication, it is still largely trained on Anglocentric data, potentially recoding English as an invisible algorithmic substrate rather than a spoken global standard. Drawing from sociolinguistics, media ecology, and AI ethics, this paper examines whether the digital age heralds linguistic liberation or the subtler persistence of English dominance within machine architectures. Trans-Babelism Theory contends that the future of language will be determined not by which tongue prevails, but by how human and artificial intelligence chooses to interpret the diversity of expression.

Authors:
Hoang-Nam Tran, Tokushima University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Hoang-Nam Tran, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Research Center for Higher Education, Tokushima University, Japan.

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