Google Assistive Writing feature is accused of being too 'woke'

Google's AI-powered 'assistive writing' feature faced criticism for being overly 'woke', inaccurate, and intrusive.

Aimed initially at enterprise users, the new feature builds on inclusive writing guidelines such as avoiding unnecessarily gendered language Google produced for its developers in 2021 and is intended to help Google Docs users avoid politically incorrect words such as 'landlord' and 'mankind',

However, some reckoned the feature went too far and took issue with it replacing the word 'landlord' with 'property owner' or 'proprietor', and that US President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration phrase 'for all mankind' is replaced with 'for all humankind.'

Others found it inaccurate. Vice discovered that words including 'annoyed' and 'Motherboard' were flagged for being insufficiently inclusive. Yet, as Vice journalist Samantha Cole pointed out, being annoyed is not the same as being 'upset' or 'angry', both of which Google suggested to make her sentences 'flow better'.

The assistive writing feature was also criticised for being overly intrusive and its users guinea pigs for Google's ongoing efforts to train and improve its predictive text, search suggestion, and other systems.

Google says it does not 'yet (and may never) have a complete solution to identifying and mitigating all unwanted word associations and biases' and that the feature is undergoing 'ongoing evolution.'

News, commentary, analysis 🗞️

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