IT Blog

Grammarly, which offers a service designed to improve written communications, has launched a new sensitivity feature that’s very much of the moment. It detects when users write the politically loaded terms “Chinese Virus” or “Wuhan Virus,” or other variants, and suggests that they use “COVID-19” or “the coronavirus” instead.

Grammarly’s browser, email, and Microsoft Office plugins use AI to detect and correct basic communications matters such as spelling and grammar, but also more subtle things—for instance, tone, bias, inclusion, and sensitivity. The idea is that in important documents such as presentations or résumés, or in social media posts, the user can avoid inadvertently offending people or giving the wrong impression.

Grammarly points out that the World Health Organization issued guidelines in 2015 discouraging the use of geographic locations when naming illnesses, because it could stigmatize the people living there. “This new,…