Elon Musk has not exactly shied away from issues around free speech - just ask any Twitter, or rather X, user or any of the many controversial figures he’s brought back to the platform in the last year.
The billionaire and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” has now also complained that he has been scolded for using the word “insane” in a document.
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This comes as Microsoft Word's inclusiveness spell-check feature suggested that the term “implies mental health bias.”
He also found that when typing “11,000lbs towing capacity”, Microsoft suggested he should consider a different perspective, such as writing “11,000lbs (about twice the weight of an elephant).”
A community note has since been added to his tweet stating: “This feature has been available in Microsoft Word since at least 2020 and has to be turned on manually.”
On X, community notes are used to “create a better informed world” by users adding context to “potentially misleading posts”, and if enough people rate the note as helpful, it will be publicly shown on a post.
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In response, Musk argued that the community note was “both incorrect here and should not use information from a company’s website as the fundamental source of truth about their products.”
According to Microsoft, their editing tools were upgraded in early 2020, including a check for inclusive language, but it was not switched on by default.
The AI tool also suggests gender neutral terms, such as changing ‘landlord’ to property owner, or ‘businessman’ to ‘businessperson.’
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This isn’t the first time Musk has shown he is a supporter of free speech - earlier this month he let conspiracy theorist Alex Jones return to X.
Jones was banned from X, then known as Twitter, in 2018 and is most well-known for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was fake.
Musk allowed Jones back on the site after he ran a poll, with around 70% of respondents voting to lift the ban.
Microsoft has been contacted for comment.