1984: Thread

[grarpamp]

> "It's Our Job To Control How People Think  -- MSNBC"
> https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1515105781560971266


Google Rolls Out Feature That Corrects You With Woke 'Inclusive' Language

https://summit.news/2022/04/25/report-google-rolls-out-feature-that-corrects-you-with-woke-inclusive-language/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/23/big-brother-sorry-big-person-correcting-google/

Google’s document editor will begin to correct the language of what
people type to be more ‘inclusive’, according to a report in the
Telegraph.

The article, headlined Big Brother (sorry, Big Person) is correcting
you on Google, outlines how the company is to implement ‘inclusive
warnings’ on Google Docs, suggesting that users refrain from using
terms such as ‘policeman’ or ‘landlord’, because they are gendered.

The warnings will alert users that what they have typed “may not be
inclusive to all readers,” while suggesting users should “Consider
using different words,” offering woke corrections like ‘police
officer’ or ‘property owner’.

The report notes, however, that even technical terms like
‘motherboard’ fall prey to Google’s woke correction.

When Googling John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech, Google suggests
that it should be corrected to ‘for all humankind’ instead of ‘for all
mankind’.

Critics hit out at Google attempting to police and change language,
with Silkie Carlo, the director of rights group Big Brother Watch,
calling it “deeply intrusive.”

    “With Google’s new assistive writing tool, the company is not only
reading every word you type but telling you what to type,” she noted.

    “This speech-policing is profoundly clumsy, creepy and wrong,
often reinforcing bias. Invasive tech like this undermines privacy,
freedom of expression and increasingly freedom of thought,” Carlo
added.

Lazar Radic, a senior scholar in economic policy at the International
Centre for Law and Economics, noted that “Not only is this incredibly
conceited and patronising – it can also serve to stifle individuality,
self-expression, experimentation, and – from a purely utilitarian
perspective – progress.”

Radic explained, “What if ‘landlord’ is the better choice because it
makes more sense, narratively, in a novel? What if ‘house owner’
sounds wooden and fails to invoke the same sense of poignancy? What if
the defendant really was a ‘housewife’ – and refers to herself as
such? Should all written pieces – including written forms of art, such
as novels, lyrics, and poetry – follow the same, boring template?”

The feature on Google Docs, which could easily be shifted over to its
search engine, is now on by default for what the company has termed
‘enterprise-level users’.

Google has stated that “Assisted writing uses language understanding
models, which rely on millions of common phrases and sentences to
automatically learn how people communicate. This also means they can
reflect some human cognitive biases.”

So here we have Google literally taking on the role of the Ministry of
Truth from Orwell’s 1984, policing language and making sure that its
Newspeak is implemented whenever necessary.

That novel was a dystopian warning, not an instructional manual.