Flattened English
An automated platform measuring linguistic labor in AI-mediated knowledge work.
By Herman Justino
LLMs impose a flattened, prestige English that creates unequal linguistic labor costs across global workers who participate in digital knowledge economies.
Global Labor Currency
This is not about race alone, it is about whose English is treated as default labor currency in AI-mediated work.
Asymmetric Compliance
LLMs impose asymmetric compliance costs, shifting the burden of standardization onto non-native and dialect speakers.
This project is evolving into an automated tracking platform. By continuously monitoring search trends and social media algorithms, we quantify the real-time pressure of linguistic standardization across the digital ecosystem.
Research Question
"How do AI-mediated platforms impose uneven linguistic labor on users employing non-standard English varieties in digital work contexts?"
Linguistic Labor Index (Estimated Friction)
Semantic Drift vs. Algorithmic Norms
Core Contribution
A quantitative, platform-level audit of how search engines, social media algorithms, and LLMs enforce professional linguistic norms.
- Shifting the burden of standardization onto global and racialized workers.
- Measuring the "compliance cost" of non-standard English in a post-LLM ecosystem.