Picture this: you’re an Indian writer, seated at your desk, polishing an essay in English. You decide to lean on an AI tool for a little guidance—maybe smoothing a phrase, tightening a line. But when you read the finished draft, something feels unfamiliar. The words are fluent, yes—but the voice seems to have traveled across an ocean. It now sounds distinctly American.
That intuition isn’t only anecdotal. It’s exactly what a team of researchers at Cornell University confirmed through a recent study.
The Study
Their experiment was straightforward. A group of 118 participants was asked to write short texts about cultural topics. Half did so without any assistance, while the rest received help from AI. The differences were telling.
Indian participants, more than any other group, accepted and adopted the AI’s edits. The result? Their writing style gradually shed its unique Indian cadence, leaning instead toward American English in spelling, rhythm, and references. By contrast, American writers noticed little change; the AI was already reflective of their dominant linguistic norms.
Beyond Color vs. Colour
At first glance, one might assume it’s simply about spelling shifts—color instead of colour, or “apartment” in place of “flat.” But the Cornell study shows the influence runs much deeper.
Consider one example: when a participant wrote about Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, the AI nudged them toward Shaquille O’Neal or Scarlett Johansson. The message is unspoken but powerful—it’s suggesting that Hollywood or American basketball stars make better reference points than Bollywood icons. That quiet shift is what researchers labeled AI colonialism: cultural dominance embedded in algorithmic design.
Why India Matters Here
India is home to one of the world’s largest English-speaking populations. But Indian English isn’t a diluted version of the language—it’s a distinct ecosystem with its own rhythm and expressions. Think of quirky yet meaningful words like *prepone* (to move an event earlier) or phrases like *out of station* when referring to someone being away. These are not mistakes; they’re cultural imprints.
When an AI tool smooths them away, it’s not just refining grammar—it erases fragments of identity and replaces them with a U.S.–shaped standard.
The Bigger Question
This phenomenon raises an urgent issue beyond India. What happens to other varieties—Nigerian English, Singaporean English, Caribbean English—when the algorithms overwhelmingly lean toward American norms? Each variation carries its own heritage of stories, idioms, and perspectives.
For some, AI’s sleek uniformity might feel helpful. For others, it risks suppressing individuality and cultural nuance. Developers now face a challenge: build tools trained on diverse datasets, tools capable of reflecting rather than flattening the rich global mosaic of English.
Because language isn’t just grammar. It’s memory, identity, and belonging.
What to Remember
- Cornell’s study showed that Indian writers using AI began sounding more American in style and tone.
- The shift goes beyond spelling differences—it’s about cultural reference points.
- Researchers call this phenomenon AI colonialism—a quiet domination of global writing by Western defaults.
- U.S. writers are less affected, but global English varieties may risk being overshadowed.
Your turn: What’s one English expression—whether British, Indian, Jamaican, Nigerian, or beyond—that you’d hate to see erased by a standardized AI voice?