But some AI researchers question Google’s use of LDNOOBW to filter its AI input, saying that blacked out a lot of knowledge. Striking out pages featuring obscenities, racial slurs, anatomical terms or the word sex regardless of context would remove abusive forum postings—but also swaths of educational and medical material, news coverage about sexual politics…

“Words on the list are many times used in very offensive ways but they can also be appropriate depending on context and your identity,” says William Agnew, a machine learning researcher at the University of Washington.

Simonite, T. (2021, February 4). AI and the list of dirty, naughty, obscene, and otherwise bad words. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/ai-list-dirty-naughty-obscene-bad-words/