FILE PHOTO: A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California
OAN NEWSROOM
UPDATED 7:17 PM PT – Thursday, June 16, 2022
Leaked documents show Google is struggling to find alternatives to words or phrases flagged as non-inclusive.
According to Breitbart News on Thursday, the tech giant curated a list of phrases to replace terms such as “motherhood,” “manhole” and “cowboy.” These replacements will be suggested to Google Drive users through their auto correct feature.
“This was an amazingly ham-handed feature,” said an anonyms Google employee. “A crude manually curated, but poorly vetted list of anything vaguely race or gender-related that led to an obviously bad user experience. It’s hard to believe it ever went through user research.”
However, the company struggled to find alternatives for words such as “shaman” and “manhandle.” The new feature was announced earlier in the year, with trial runs being met with universal negative reviews. This described the company’s attempt to be more inclusive as being overzealous.
In leaked footage from an internal Google town hall meeting in 2016, the company’s top executives talked about using their technology to make advance progressive values, this just days after Donald Trump was elected.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, tearfully pledged that the company would “use the great strength and resources we have to continue to push forward really important values” in the Trump era.
Google has yet to respond to the leak.
