There are now more machines than people who speak Spanish: the Spanish Language Congress in Arequipa will address the challenge of AI.

The Peruvian city of Arequipa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is preparing to host the tenth International Spanish Language Congress (CILE) from October 14 to 17. This major triennial event celebrates a language spoken by 600 million people worldwide, bringing together 260 speakers, including linguists, academics, writers, journalists, historians, editors, and scientists. The event will be officially opened by King Felipe VI on October 15, a date that will also honor the Hispanic-Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who passed away on April 13 in Lima. As noted by Luis García Montero, the director of the Cervantes Institute, during the CILE presentation in Madrid on Tuesday, “Vargas Llosa was the first to propose holding a congress on the Spanish language in his hometown.”

Santiago Muñoz Machado, the director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), emphasized that “the Peruvian government is the main organizer of the event,” and the country’s president, Dina Boluarte, will also be present. Other organizers include the Cervantes Institute, the RAE, and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (Asale). Arequipa will host “a complex program that includes contributions from the 23 corporations of Asale.” “There are a total of 235 proposals, with 224 coming from Asale and the rest being external,” he added.

One of the main themes of the CILE in Arequipa will focus on “communication technologies, digital culture, and artificial intelligence.” “How AI affects the language, as there are now more machines speaking Spanish than people. We must ensure that AI speaks like humans do, which requires convincing the manufacturers of these machines to use canonical language,” Muñoz Machado stated. This section will include discussions on the challenge of preserving language unity in the digital environment, translation in AI, and how it affects media and education.

Muñoz Machado reminded that the RAE is involved in this process of language-technology relations through the Spanish Language and Artificial Intelligence (LEIA) program, which aims to “defend, project, and properly use the Spanish language in the digital universe, especially in artificial intelligence.”

A second block of the congress will address “Spanish as a mixed language and interculturality,” a topic that was also covered in the previous CILE held in Cádiz in March 2023. It was noted that the planned event in Arequipa could not take place due to the country’s complicated political situation. This time, there will be room to discuss language in migration and exile, Spanish in the United States, the culinary variety of Castilian, and the impact of Quechua, Aymara, and Amazonian languages on Andean Spanish.

Lastly, there will be a segment on “clear and accessible language,” pointed out Muñoz Machado, which proposes that public authorities address citizens in a language that is understood. Among other discussions, clear language in media and advertising will be examined.

Within each of these three main themes, there will be “a general speaker, two discussion panels, and simultaneous panels with expert talks.” In the mestizaje topic, there will be up to 14 panels, and 13 on clear language. As in every congress, cultural activities will also take place.

The president of the Organizing Committee and the Working Group of the X CILE, Carlos Chávez-Taffur, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru, reminded that “Spanish arrived in that country over five centuries ago and currently reaches 83% of the population as their first language, while it is the second language for the remaining 17%.”

The summits on Spanish began in 1997, in Zacatecas (Mexico), to reflect on the state and challenges of this language. Each edition is held in historic cities, but not in the capitals of American countries.