That may be a bit of an exaggerated turn of phrase, but I believe its actually fundamentally true. Language has always been a human tool. It has always been a tool for human-to-human communication. The only things in the universe capable of properly, genuinely using human language were humans.
That is no longer true, and because the mutation started as a silly little chatbot, and because the mutation has been cloaked within the promise of "increased productivity" and other various obfuscated terminology, this shift in the functionality of language has gone largely unnoticed.
I would argue that even without the enormous future possibilities of AI coming to bear, the technology has nevertheless already drastically altered a key facet of human existence. Instead of human language, we now have "cognitive language," a necessarily broader term to account for the fact that its not just humans using it anymore.
I think this is a more impactful change in society, irrespective of other changes, than people are giving it credit for. Honestly, I don't think most people have really internalized the implications (including myself), and I don't see anyone discussing this change in the broader conversation around AI.
