Elon Musk blasted a Microsoft Word feature called “inclusivity checker,” complaining that it “scolded” him for typing the word “insane.”
The billionaire owner of X posted a screenshot of a Microsoft Word document that seemed to be discussing Tesla’s recent Cybertruck, which boasted of the brand new electric vehicle’s “insane stability.”
The phrase was highlighted by Word’s software — which flags terms and phrases which can be deemed politically incorrect after which recommends alternate phrasing — warning that “insane” is a word that “implies mental health bias.”
“Microsoft Word now scolds you for those who use words that aren’t ‘inclusive’!” the world’s richest man wrote on his social media platform on Friday.
Musk also posted a screenshot showing an try and type “11,000lbs” — though it’s unclear why that term can be deemed not inclusive.
“Consider a unique perspective,” the Microsoft Word prompt reads. It then offers alternatives corresponding to “11,000lbs (about 4989.51 kg)” and “11,000lbs (about twice the load of an elephant).”
The Post has sought comment from Microsoft.
Other social media users posted screenshots of attempts to make use of terms that were flagged by the software’s “inclusivity checker.”
One user wrote in a Word document: “Hey there, could you man the booth this afternoon?”
The checker, which is simply available to customers who subscribe to the Windows maker’s $7-a-month Microsoft 365 subscription plan, flagged the phrase “man the booth” and suggested as an alternative “a gender-neutral term [that] can be more inclusive” corresponding to “staff” or “take control of.”
Other phrases which can be deemed to be politically incorrect by the “inclusivity checker” include “postman” — which the software suggests be rephrased as “postal employee” — and “master” — which might be altered to “expert.”
Within the wake of the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in Minneapolis within the spring of 2020, GitHub, the Microsoft-owned open source software engineering site, banned the usage of the phrases “master” and “slave” since they were considered racially insensitive.
Since 2020, updated versions of Microsoft Word have included a feature that enables users to prompt the software to flag “exclusionary” language that promotes age bias, gender bias, cultural slurs, sexual orientation bias and racial bias.
Microsoft Word users must manually activate the feature for it to work.
Users can achieve this by opening a recent Word document after which clicking on the “editor” button. Within the settings section, they’d then need to select the “proofing” category.
Near the “writing style” option is a drag-down menu for “Grammar & Refinements.” The user would then must hit the “settings” button.
That may reveal a drag-down menu through which users can click on boxes under the “Inclusiveness” category.
Once the “inclusivity checker” is activated, the software will flag terms that fall outside its “accepted” and “allowed” lists of terms.
If a user were to type within the word “mankind,” the software would flag the term and suggest alternatives corresponding to “humankind” or “humanity.”
The user could simply ignore the prompt and keep the term in place.
