{"id":108279,"date":"2025-02-12T16:02:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T00:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/12\/autocorrect-other-ai-applications-are-biased-against-rural-language-like-hunting-and-fishing-terms\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T16:02:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T00:02:53","slug":"autocorrect-other-ai-applications-are-biased-against-rural-language-like-hunting-and-fishing-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/12\/autocorrect-other-ai-applications-are-biased-against-rural-language-like-hunting-and-fishing-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Autocorrect, Other AI Applications, Are Biased Against Rural Language Like Hunting And Fishing Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I spent about half my life in very rural areas of America learning how to hunt and fish and otherwise have a good time in the outdoors. For the other half, of course, I\u2019ve been in cities of various sizes learnin\u2019 fancy lawyer words and then trying to make some money with them.<\/p>\n

I had some success along each of these paths. Which pretty much makes me too much of a redneck to fit in well in big cities while simultaneously making me too much of an over-educated liberal to really feel at home out in the country.<\/p>\n

That problem aside, my somewhat unique cultural perspective can also be an asset. Like when I notice weird things happening with the autocorrect features on various applications on my Apple<\/a> iPhone.<\/p>\n

I was texting my cousin this morning using Facebook Messenger<\/a>. I mentioned \u201csnaring rabbits.\u201d Despite having spelled that perfectly the first time, Facebook Messenger\u2019s autocorrect feature changed my carefully selected phrase to \u201csharing rabbits,\u201d which totally makes more sense I guess, what with Easter coming up and all.<\/p>\n

This was not an isolated incident. I have a friend who lives in Missouri. I text him from time to time to ask about his level of success in \u201cgigging\u201d frogs (the best definition of a \u201cgig\u201d that I\u2019ve found is \u201ca harpoonlike device<\/a>,\u201d so when you are gigging frogs, you are spearing them, to make delicious frog legs). My iPhone sure likes to automatically change that to \u201cgagging\u201d frogs.<\/p>\n

There is certainly a discussion to be had about humane methods of what is legally referred to in many jurisdictions as animal \u201ctake<\/a>.\u201d I just don\u2019t know why my iPhone seems intent on manual strangulation as opposed to a quick and neat spear thrust.<\/p>\n

I did not readily find academic research about artificial intelligence applications potentially being biased against more rural terminology (there is a whole bunch of research out there about AI being racist<\/a>, however). Anecdotally, I have noticed this repeatedly, and it kind of makes sense logically based on how text-based AI features function.<\/p>\n

What an autocorrect feature (or a large language model asked to write something) is doing, after having read through all sorts of content similar to what is currently being generated, is predicting what the human writer is most likely to want to say. Only about 20% of Americans<\/a> live in rural areas. That makes for a lot more people texting, messaging, and otherwise writing about things going on in cities, suburbs, and medium-sized communities. AIs are training disproportionately on content created by people living in higher-population areas.<\/p>\n

For the record, I did ask the latest version of ChatGPT<\/a>, \u201cDo you know anything about gigging frogs?\u201d It totally nailed the correct answer. It also asked me why I was I interested in gigging frogs, so I explained that I was trying to ascertain whether it was familiar with terms more commonly used in rural America. It assured me it was.<\/p>\n

While I was at it, I actually got kind of wrapped up in a whole conversation with the thing about this entire article. ChatGPT more or less agreed with me about how less-sophisticated AI used in autocorrect features works and thus how it often fails to correctly recognize niche terminology that may be more prevalent in rural America as it tries to serve the broadest group of users possible. The whole thing was equal parts impressive and uncanny.<\/p>\n

Maybe all we\u2019ve learned here is that the AI in use to correct our grammar in iPhones and on Facebook is quite primitive in comparison to OpenAI\u2019s perhaps appropriately hyped<\/a> platform. But if you ask me (or ChatGPT), texting and messaging applications currently in use certainly seem to be biased against language, like niche hunting and fishing terms, used primarily among smaller groups of people.<\/p>\n

There are obviously greater injustices in the world. I can tell you, though, that messaging applications correcting my already correct text messages about rural things is an almost weekly annoyance, and one that makes me feel just a little bit more resentful toward big tech companies every time it happens. That can\u2019t be a good thing for America\u2019s rural-urban political divide.<\/p>\n

\n

Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Your Debt-Free JD<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn\u2019t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>jon_wolf@hotmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Autocorrect, Other AI Applications, Are Biased Against Rural Language Like Hunting And Fishing Terms<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I spent about half my life in very rural areas of America learning how to hunt and fish and otherwise have a good time in the outdoors. For the other half, of course, I\u2019ve been in cities of various sizes learnin\u2019 fancy lawyer words and then trying to make some money with them.<\/p>\n

I had some success along each of these paths. Which pretty much makes me too much of a redneck to fit in well in big cities while simultaneously making me too much of an over-educated liberal to really feel at home out in the country.<\/p>\n

That problem aside, my somewhat unique cultural perspective can also be an asset. Like when I notice weird things happening with the autocorrect features on various applications on my Apple<\/a> iPhone.<\/p>\n

I was texting my cousin this morning using Facebook Messenger<\/a>. I mentioned \u201csnaring rabbits.\u201d Despite having spelled that perfectly the first time, Facebook Messenger\u2019s autocorrect feature changed my carefully selected phrase to \u201csharing rabbits,\u201d which totally makes more sense I guess, what with Easter coming up and all.<\/p>\n

This was not an isolated incident. I have a friend who lives in Missouri. I text him from time to time to ask about his level of success in \u201cgigging\u201d frogs (the best definition of a \u201cgig\u201d that I\u2019ve found is \u201ca harpoonlike device<\/a>,\u201d so when you are gigging frogs, you are spearing them, to make delicious frog legs). My iPhone sure likes to automatically change that to \u201cgagging\u201d frogs.<\/p>\n

There is certainly a discussion to be had about humane methods of what is legally referred to in many jurisdictions as animal \u201ctake<\/a>.\u201d I just don\u2019t know why my iPhone seems intent on manual strangulation as opposed to a quick and neat spear thrust.<\/p>\n

I did not readily find academic research about artificial intelligence applications potentially being biased against more rural terminology (there is a whole bunch of research out there about AI being racist<\/a>, however). Anecdotally, I have noticed this repeatedly, and it kind of makes sense logically based on how text-based AI features function.<\/p>\n

What an autocorrect feature (or a large language model asked to write something) is doing, after having read through all sorts of content similar to what is currently being generated, is predicting what the human writer is most likely to want to say. Only about 20% of Americans<\/a> live in rural areas. That makes for a lot more people texting, messaging, and otherwise writing about things going on in cities, suburbs, and medium-sized communities. AIs are training disproportionately on content created by people living in higher-population areas.<\/p>\n

For the record, I did ask the latest version of ChatGPT<\/a>, \u201cDo you know anything about gigging frogs?\u201d It totally nailed the correct answer. It also asked me why I was I interested in gigging frogs, so I explained that I was trying to ascertain whether it was familiar with terms more commonly used in rural America. It assured me it was.<\/p>\n

While I was at it, I actually got kind of wrapped up in a whole conversation with the thing about this entire article. ChatGPT more or less agreed with me about how less-sophisticated AI used in autocorrect features works and thus how it often fails to correctly recognize niche terminology that may be more prevalent in rural America as it tries to serve the broadest group of users possible. The whole thing was equal parts impressive and uncanny.<\/p>\n

Maybe all we\u2019ve learned here is that the AI in use to correct our grammar in iPhones and on Facebook is quite primitive in comparison to OpenAI\u2019s perhaps appropriately hyped<\/a> platform. But if you ask me (or ChatGPT), texting and messaging applications currently in use certainly seem to be biased against language, like niche hunting and fishing terms, used primarily among smaller groups of people.<\/p>\n

There are obviously greater injustices in the world. I can tell you, though, that messaging applications correcting my already correct text messages about rural things is an almost weekly annoyance, and one that makes me feel just a little bit more resentful toward big tech companies every time it happens. That can\u2019t be a good thing for America\u2019s rural-urban political divide.<\/p>\n

\n

Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Your Debt-Free JD<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn\u2019t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>[email\u00a0protected]<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent about half my life in very rural areas of America learning how to hunt and fish and otherwise have a good time in the outdoors. For the other half, of course, I\u2019ve been in cities of various sizes learnin\u2019 fancy lawyer words and then trying to make some money with them. I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-1367281424-620x414-xGcU9Y.jpeg?fit=620%2C414&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}