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Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

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Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#141

Post by mgraczyk »

brobinson wrote: post #136
mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

Genuinely curious: what do you do internally for "male" and "female" connectors?

That one is in the public list.

https://developers.google.com/style/word-list

You're supposed to use "plug" and "socket" instead.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#142

Post by blast »

karaterobot wrote: post #20

I dislike this proposed feature as much as the next person, but it's worth noting that the main complaint of this article is fairly unique: they work on a channel called Motherboard, and this feature is going to cause the name of their channel to be considered a problem. Most people won't experience that specific error case. It's valid, and points to the kinds of unforeseen consequences you run into when trying to ma…

It's not valid to censor the word "mother". It's either laughable or sinister, depending on whether the people trying to do it actually have power.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#146

Post by mikkergp »

nostromo wrote: post #31

Who was asking for Woke Clippy? Is Google just bored and completely out of ideas? They seem increasingly disconnected with what their users actually want.

This is a popular tool in hiring for creating inclusive job descriptions. They're competing with companies like https://textio.com/

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#147

Post by throwaway47295 »

jedimastert wrote: post #78
kache_ wrote: post #22

I've been privy to people trying to ban words like "whitelabel" at my company. Thankfully, management & executives at my company never stood for that BS so I still get to use whitelist & blacklist in documentation, and don't worry about those non-issues get in the way of me actually doing work. Google might be too far gone, and working with those people would be so exhausting that it's actually stopped me from applyi…

Silly question: ignoring any kind of history, why fight for terms like "whitelist" and "blacklist" when terms like "allowlist" and "blocklist" are objectively clearer, especially for folks who's first language is not English?

I've always pictured a 'blacklist' as a document with blacked-out redacted text; a whitelist is just the opposite. It wasn't until this substitutional whitewashing[0] of the English language that I realized whitelist/blacklist held negative connotations for some people.

[0]: like painting over a fence, geez.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#148

Post by jasonshaev »

dolni wrote: post #10
john_moscow wrote: post #6

Well, such things are always driven by demand. And unfortunately, there is a strong demand in our society for policing words, renaming formulas and issuing apologies all while: * Property ownership is becoming out of question for an increasing fraction of Americans * Any kid of retirement (as in not having to work and enjoying life off your savings) has become a pipe dream * Having a single-income family with one par…

The elites of America use "inclusivity" and race as bait to distract from the very issues you describe. Notice how we, as a society, spent relatively little time discussing the 2008 Mortgage Crisis and Occupy Wall Street. Meanwhile news outlets have been beating the "inclusivity" / race / gender drum for _years_. Time to wake up, folks.

What? The 2008 Mortgage Crisis was the biggest news story for at least a year.

Comparing that to "inclusivity" is also strange because inclusivity is not an event. A single event has a natural decay of relevance, the further into the past it gets.

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#149

Post by drdeca »

reaperducer wrote: post #113
bombcar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landlord gets hit from multiple sides; those who don't like that it contains "lord" which is a male term, those who don't like that landlords exist, and those who don't like that the concept of owning land exists.

it contains "lord" which is a male term I didn't think of that. I always thought of it as "lording over" something. As in she's the "lord of the land." That said, a landlord and a property owner are not the same thing. Many (most?) apartment buildings are owned by one company and managed by another.

nearest((lord) + (woman) - (man),excluding=[(lord)])==(lady)

Re: Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken

#150

Post by droptablemain »

mgraczyk wrote: post #9

In the article they use the example of "Motherboard" and "Landlord" and seem to suggest that these are areas where the Google AI is making mistakes or being overly strict. As a Google employee expressing my own opinion and observations of company culture, I can say that these are 100% not mistakes. Many Google employees are just so out of touch with the real world that they believe it is the duty of Google Docs to ch…

Sounds like woke gibberish. I suppose we can take some solace in the fact that they haven't renamed "motherboard" as "birthing-person-board."
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