MS Word goes politically correct

[MidnightCowboy]

I thought we were back on April 1st when I read this.

"It might underline places where your writing exhibited gender bias. If you tend to say “mailman” or Congressman” in the generic, it might suggest you use “mailperson” or “Congressperson.” If you use the term “gentlemen’s agreement,” it may suggest you use “unspoken agreement” instead".

Best reason yet to use Linux or LibreOffice instead.

At least I can sleep tonight with a smile knowing that pretty much everything I write would test their A.I. algorithms to the limit.

[Jojo Yee]

Interesting to see what it can develop, hopefully its AI is smarter than or strong enough to compete with human brains.

[eyeb]

“mailperson” or “Congressperson" are not real words does it auto-correct itself?

[EldonW]

So... If you type Congressman John Smith it will suggest Congressperson John Smith. I wonder how Mr Smith feels being stripped of his manhood? Then again, at least he now has a personhood!

Since it's become the norm to refer to a black person as "a person of colour", will a white person become "a person of no colour"?

[danielson]

Not sure Open Source apps like LibreOffice will be immune from such non-sense.
Take the "recent" episode with Linus Torvalds and his brief distancing from the Linux world.

Better chances for stability with AbiWord which will probably never get another update or with old versions of Word Perfect?

[Jojo Yee]

Originally Posted by EldonW

So... If you type Congressman John Smith it will suggest Congressperson John Smith. I wonder how Mr Smith feels being stripped of his manhood? Then again, at least he now has a personhood!

A good point EldonW. Probably it creates more questions for users to answer like "accept", "ignore", or "don't ask again." An AI which is able or needs to learn.

[EldonW]

Originally Posted by danielson

Better chances for stability with AbiWord which will probably never get another update or with old versions of Word Perfect?

Or an older version of Word.
There are numerous Word Processors that's adequate for the majority of home and small office users. AbiWord is no longer one of them. It's award winning days are long gone...

[eyeb]

Originally Posted by Jojo Yee

A good point EldonW. Probably it creates more questions for users to answer like "accept", "ignore", or "don't ask again." An AI which is able or needs to learn.

Studies have shown AIs to be sexist too they have been shown to prefer to hire men over women... ^^ the people behind the study ignored the facts that those men had better resumes though

[Remah]

In Office 365, I can already turn ON/OFF grammar checking for Inclusive/Gender-specific language. The default is currently OFF.

Microsoft Word grammar checking features have almost always been user selectable. The same applies to refinements for writing styles - there's even a set of options that apply to writing CVs/resumés.

However, Microsoft have already noted that some new grammar options are only available to subscription versions of Office:
https://support.office.com/en-us/art...c-42efa6cff55a

[danielson]

@Remah - that is good news!