Google is waking up! Search engine launches ‘inclusive language’ feature

Google has launched an ‘inclusive language’ feature designed to avoid the use of politically incorrect words.

Users writing ‘landlord’ will see a warning that it ‘may not be inclusive for all readers’ with the suggestion to try ‘property owner’ or ‘owner’ instead.

The word ‘humanity’ is a suggested alternative to what the online giant apparently sees as the controversial term ‘humanity’.

Users writing “landlord” will see a warning that it “may not be inclusive for all readers” with the suggestion that they should try “property owner” or “owner” instead of

Gender-specific terms such as “police officers” or “housewives” should also be replaced by “police officers” and “resident spouses,” according to the new Google Document program. It is now being rolled out to what the company calls users at the enterprise level.

Many computer document systems use methods to correct spelling and grammar.

But pushing users towards waking language is seen by critics as a step too far. Testing the system has also thrown up major bugs.

A transcribed interview with former Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke, in which he uses offensive race regrets and talks about chasing black people, gave no warnings.

But it suggested that President John F Kennedy’s opening speech should say ‘for all mankind’ instead of ‘for all mankind’.

Many computer document systems use methods to correct spelling and grammar. But pushing users towards waking language is seen by critics as a step too far. Testing the system has also thrown up major bugs

Silkie Carlo of the Big Brother Watch campaign group told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘Google’s warnings about new words are not helpful, they are deeply intrusive.

‘This speech police is deeply clumsy, sinister and wrong, which often reinforces bias.’

Sam Bowman, from the online magazine Works in Progress, said: ‘It feels quite hectic and adds an unwanted political / cultural angle to what I would rather be a neutral product [as] a user.’

A Google spokesman said: ‘Our technology is always getting better and we are not doing that yet [have] a solution to identify and mitigate all unwanted word associations and biases. ‘