World Wide Models: Literary Tools for Cultural AI
2026-07-02 • Computation and Language
Computation and LanguageArtificial Intelligence
AI summaryⓘ
The authors explain that large language models (LLMs) create a new way for cultures to interact that is huge, automatic, and mostly in one language. They argue that traditional literary tools like comparing stories, studying narrative styles, and translation are essential for making AI that understands culture well. The essay proposes a detailed approach combining literature and AI ideas to handle different meanings and interpretations. It also suggests using world literature concepts to better understand how AI deals with texts from around the world, focusing on big-picture structure, how texts spread, and the limits of translation.
Large Language ModelsCultural EncounterComparative LiteratureNarratologyCritical TheoryWorld LiteratureTranslationTextual ModelsMonolingualismUntranslatability
Authors
Nina Begus
Abstract
LLMs stage a new form of cultural encounter that is massive, automated, and monolingual. Literary disciplines have always negotiated cultural struggles with comparative reading of literature, narratological and poetic analysis, critical theory, world literature, and translation. These tools have now become indispensable for building culturally literate AI. The essay develops a layered framework toward more nuanced textual models and pluralistic interpretations of AI, emphasizing the natural intersections of literature and AI development, connecting current debates in critical theory with structural monolingualism, and suggesting a new application of world literature approaches to address global AI textuality through macrostructure, circulation, and untranslatability.