Rethinking Indic AI: Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Language

The paper examines the complex relationship between Artificial Intelligence and the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent. It posits AI as a "double-edged sword," capable of fostering inclusion for a vast population while simultaneously posing risks of homogenizing worldviews and marginalizing underrepresented languages and cultural practices. The authors characterize the extensive and diverse nature of Indian linguistics and its deep connections to cultural practices. They provide a historical overview of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in this domain, tracing key milestones, methodological shifts, and efforts in resource creation. Furthermore, the paper delves into the structural and sociolinguistic complexities of Indian languages, such as rich morphology, intricate scripts, diglossia, and significant dialectal variation, explaining how these present unique challenges for building robust AI foundation models. It discusses the emerging role of Indic foundation models in addressing these gaps and introduces "Culture Sensing," a research direction based on hermeneutic reasoning, aiming to ensure equitable performance for low-resource languages and culturally relevant AI outputs.