Language Models as Measurement Apparatus for Culture
Language models are increasingly used to quantify cultural phenomena, but what makes such measurement distinctively cultural? This paper argues that NLP work on culture is a material-discursive practice: the apparatus -- model, data, annotation, evaluation -- participates in constituting the cultural reality it measures, rather than passively recording it. Drawing on Karen Barad's concept of the agential cut -- the contingent boundary between phenomenon and instrument -- I show that the apparatu
Record details
Published: 2 July 2026
Source: arXiv cs.CL (ethics-relevant NLP)
Category: Research
Topics: Agents & autonomy
Retrieved: 14 July 2026
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ethics.ai (2 July 2026), “Language Models as Measurement Apparatus for Culture,” evidence record 3020, https://ethics.ai/record/3020 (originally published by arXiv cs.CL (ethics-relevant NLP)).
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