Imagine the desk in Mumbai again, with an essay draft glowing on the screen. A tap on the AI assistant, and suddenly the words feel smoother, shorter, and subtly more American. That is the quiet drift a recent study uncovers—one where AI itself reshapes the way people from different regions write.
The Subtle Pull of Algorithms
According to a 2025 Cornell University study, AI tools nudge Indian English writers toward Americanized styles far more than the other way around. Where Americans largely remain in their own lane, Indian participants absorbed new spellings, idioms, and even swapped cultural markers. They didn’t push against it—often they willingly accepted the suggestions, seeing them as “improvements.”
Anecdotes That Tell a Bigger Story
One of the most striking examples comes from a simple cultural reference. An Indian writer’s mention of Shah Rukh Khan was rewritten by the AI into a mention of Shaquille O’Neal and Scarlett Johansson. A Bollywood icon was displaced by Hollywood and American sports. This was more than a spelling change; it was a shift in who gets to define what is “universal.”
Why It Matters
Indian English has a long legacy. It’s the connective tissue between diverse regions and the umbrella under which countless Indian voices reach global stage. Replacing its unique expressions with Americanized ones risks more than the loss of a few colourful phrases. It risks blunting an entire literary identity.
- Indian English evolved during colonial rule, later becoming a post-independence tool of unity.
- It is not ”lesser” English, but one of the world’s most widely spoken and innovatively used forms.
- AI systems, however, are mostly trained on U.S.-centric data, unintentionally promoting one standard as the global one.
Beyond Spelling Choices
It might look trivial—dropping a “u” in “colour” or calling “autumn” “fall.” But every suggestion the AI makes carries cultural freight. If a Chennai student’s metaphor is replaced with one rooted in Los Angeles, over time, imagination itself bends westward.
Linguistic Imperialism in the Digital Age
Scholars have begun calling this push AI colonialism. Unlike old-school imperialism, it isn’t an overt act of dominance. Instead, it’s structural: trained data elevates certain language forms as the default, while others slowly fade in visibility. What once happened through schooling systems and publishing channels is now unfolding inside predictive text boxes and editing tools.
What Can Be Done?
Preserving linguistic diversity means actively resisting flattening pressures. Possible strategies include:
- Diverse training data: Ensuring AI systems learn from Indian English texts—newspapers, novels, essays—so they echo authentic rhythms.
- User choice: Allowing writers to set linguistic preferences, so AI respects local variations instead of erasing them.
- Critical awareness: Encouraging writers not to accept every suggestion, and to consciously protect their cultural references.
A Shared Responsibility
Ultimately, the question is larger than style. Should people adapt to machines, or should machines learn to reflect the diversity of human voices? As AI intertwines ever more deeply into literature, journalism, and even daily emails, that question will only grow urgent.
If left unnoticed, Shah Rukh Khan may keep vanishing and returning as Shaq. But if we demand otherwise, AI could just as easily learn to protect—not flatten—the rich plurality of Englishes across the world.
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👉 Would you like me to expand this into a feature-length essay with deeper historical context on colonial-era linguistic power shifts, or should I refine it further as a compact, conversational narrative?