English Dominance, AI Bias, & Australia's Capability Crisis:

The following discussion points were shared with me by Mr Sherman Mak, an Innovation Programmes mentor/coach.in CSIRO — the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s national science agency. CSIRO is widely regarded as one of the world’s most diverse and impactful research institutions, delivering cutting-edge science and innovative solutions for industry, society, and the environment. I found Sherman’s observations thought-provoking, and I have obtained his permission to reproduce them below.

Sherman is the scion of the Malaysia–Singapore Fung Keong Rubber Manufactory family. His wife, Lyn, is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Federation University Australia (formerly the University of Ballarat).

 

English Dominance, AI Bias, & Australia's Capability Crisis

1. The Core Problem: English Dominance can Stifle Innovation and Embeds Bias

Language is Power: English dominance worldwide creates linguistic imperialism and carries a cultural bias, favouring Western/American worldviews.

AI Bias as Reinforcement: Artificial Intelligence (AI) models (like Large Language Models or LLMs) are primarily trained on the vast amount of English data scraped from the internet. This causes AI to amplify the dominance of English and its embedded biases.

The AI Bias Problem: This results in AI systems that perform worse for non-native English speakers (e.g., scoring errors on essays, misinterpreting non-standard accents) and generate information that prioritizes American-centric perspectives, ignoring or distorting narratives from lower-resource languages.

Media English Language Bias Example (BBC): Even major news sources use loaded language (e.g., calling one group a "militant" while others are "terrorists") and biased framing, which subtly dictates global narratives.

Stifled Innovation and Talent: The English requirement blocks diverse global talent and unique cognitive frameworks embedded in other languages and systems. This lack of perspective diversity stifles innovation and creative problem-solving worldwide.

Non-native English-speaking researchers spend up to 51% more time writing manuscripts and are asked to improve their English up to 12.5 times more often than native speakers, diverting resources away from scientific discovery and innovation (Reminder more than 80% of the world are not English native speakers). It will be interesting to see how many native English-speaking Australians and politicians can get an IELTS of 65 points and above.

Interestingly, both Australia (93%) and the United States (95%) are just ranked ahead of the Netherlands in the population that speaks English 91%. Australia and America are even below Singapore which is at 96%. Plus, these two countries' majority of its population are at least Bilingual.

The 80% of the non-English speaking world, is why AI is being developed outside of the English-speaking world should not be underestimated.

2. The Australian Crisis: Losing Our Edge

Capability in Decline: Experts confirm Australia is in a severe crisis, losing its Asia capability (language and cultural literacy), which is vital for its economic and security future.

Structural Bias and Debt: The structural decline in Asian language study is accelerated by policies like the Jobs Ready Graduate (JRG) scheme, which caused the cost of humanities (the foundation for Asian studies) to more than double, creating degrees that cost students up to A$50,000. This debt is a direct structural barrier to developing vital Asia capability. This indirectly leading to generations of monolingual/monoculture bureaucrats.

Wasted Talent: Australia under-utilises its own Asian diaspora a vast (nearly 20% of the population), ready-made source of linguistic knowledge because of underlying structural bias and a failure to reward non-English skills.

3. Possible Solutions: Value Multilingualism as a National Strategy

A National Asset: We must recognize that multilingualism is a strategic national asset.

The cognitive flexibility, cultural empathy, and higher earnings associated with bilingualism are essential to overcoming bias and fuelling innovation.

Learn from Pop Culture (Labubu Example): The global marketing success of cultural IP like Labubu (a Chinese/Hong Kong-market character/brand built on emotional appeal, scarcity, and community-driven hype) demonstrates the immense economic and cultural power of non-Western products.

Learn from our current failures in our rollout of our 1st nations and multicultural narratives (Being hijacked by right-wing politics).

Australia must shift from a transactional approach to one that genuinely understands and collaborates with the region's cultural drivers to build deep engagement. Need for Action: Reversing the crisis requires a national strategy to invest in Asian language learning from school through university, addressing AI bias by funding diverse language data sets, and actively leveraging the expertise of diverse communities.

The stakes are high. Without change, Australia risks becoming strangers in our own region and hindering future economic success.

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