BiasMedium
Google’s Assistive Writing Feature Provided Allegedly Unnecessary and Clumsy Suggestions
- Occurred
- Apr 19, 2022
- Published
- Apr 25, 2022
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Google’s “inclusive language” feature prompting writers to consider alternatives to non-inclusive words reportedly also recommend alternatives for words such as “landlord” and “motherboard,” which critics said was a form of obtrusive, unnecessary, and bias-reinforcing speech-policing.
Developers
- Google Docs
Deployers
- Google Docs
Harmed parties
- Google Docs users
Classification
Category confidence: 85%
Severity confidence: 80%
Rationale: AI feature made inappropriate suggestions reinforcing bias, causing controversy without major harm.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8