Elon Musk takes a jab at Microsoft Word: Here's why
What's the story
Elon Musk has expressed his disapproval of Microsoft Word's inclusivity feature, on X. Musk posted a screenshot showing a blue squiggly line under the word "Insane" in a Word document, with a suggestion to replace the term due to its mental health bias. He captioned the post, "Microsoft Word now scolds you if you use words that aren't 'inclusive'!"
Twitter Post
Take a look at Musk's post
And this too! pic.twitter.com/03ZbwFu4NE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2023
Details
The reason behind Microsoft Word's suggestion
Musk also pointed out that the phrase "11,000lbs" was flagged in the Word document, with a suggestion to replace pounds with kg instead. Per Microsoft, the Perspective feature "highlights potentially confusing numbers in documents. " Word then "provides easy-to-understand perspective phrases that can be inserted inline to help people better understand what they're writing or reading." With regard to the inclusivity feature, several users have praised it for helping them be more mindful of their writing and word choices.
Feature
Disabling the inclusivity feature
The inclusivity feature in Microsoft Word can be easily turned off in the settings menu. The feature covers bias terms related to age, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender-neutral pronouns, gender-specific language, race, and sexual orientation. It is worth noting that Microsoft does not block users from typing certain words. It simply offers alternative suggestions or alerts them about potentially non-inclusive terms.