# World Wide Models: Literary Tools for Cultural AI

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02369 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.02369/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Datasheets for Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.09010/) (2018)
- [Algorithmic Monoculture and Social Welfare](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.05853/) (2021)
- [Language Contamination Helps Explain the Cross-lingual Capabilities of English Pretrained Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08110/) (2022)
- [Picking on the Same Person: Does Algorithmic Monoculture lead to Outcome Homogenization?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.13972/) (2022)
- [Machine Culture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.11388/) (2023)
- [The State of Multilingual LLM Safety Research: From Measuring the Language Gap to Mitigating It](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24119/) (2025)
- [Lost in Translation: Large Language Models in Non-English Content Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07377/) (2023)
- [Experimental Narratives: A Comparison of Human Crowdsourced Storytelling and AI Storytelling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12902/) (2023)
- [SEA-LION: Southeast Asian Languages in One Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05747/) (2025)
- [Computational Hermeneutics: Evaluating generative AI as a cultural technology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.16403/) (2026)
- [The AI Fiction Paradox](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.13545/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

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.