AI threatens to destroy so much of our culture. Our greatest loss might be our ability to listen | Shirleene Robinson

Australians are conversing less every year, with a recent study showing we lost an average of 338 spoken words each day between 2005 and 2019 We talk a lot about losing our ability to write as a result of AI. I’m convinced our greatest loss might be our ability to listen. Listening to different views and entering into different worlds is integral to our humanity.

But Australians are conversing less every year. While rapidly evolving AI tools and chatbots promise faster responses and so-called “empathetic” listening, a recent study showed we lost an average of 338 spoken words each day between 2005 and 2019. That adds up to a staggering loss of 120,000 spoken words per person, compared with the year before. This matters immensely.

Language is culture. It tells us who we are. As an oral historian, I’ve spent much of my career studying the power of human speech and storytelling. Between 2018 and early 2024, I led a team at the National Library of Australia responsible for the largest oral history collection in the southern hemisphere, which began…