Ola CEO called ‘they’, not he by AI; says West ‘illness’ shouldn’t reach India

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola, reflected on the use of gender pronouns, sparking a controversy on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). In a post on X, he said that he can only hope that the “pronoun illness” does not reach India as he asked people to draw a line in following “the west blindly”. With the post, he shared shared a screenshot from a response LinkedIn’s AI bot generated when he asked it about himself. The chatbot used “they” and “their” to address the CEO. Bhavish Aggarwal said, “Hoping that this “pronoun illness” doesn’t reach India.”

Many “big city schools” in India are teaching how to use gender pronouns to children, he said, adding, “Also see many CVs with pronouns these days. Need to know where to draw the line in following the west blindly! Screenshot is from LinkedIn’s AI bot. This ‘pronouns illness’ is being perpetuated in India by MNCs without us Indians even realising it.”

See Bhavish Aggarwal’s post here:

Netizens reacted to the post with one user questioning, “I disagree with you here. This doesn’t hurt anyone and do you really think having pronouns on CVs would impact your decision to hire an individual?”

Another said, “Totally agree. We cannot import it when we have real issues on the ground. But this is up to the MNCs and government of India. Employees will be forced to follow it up.”

A third user praised Bhavish Aggarwal saying, “Thank god. There is hope. A CEO and influencer speaking against this illness” while a fourth noted, “Why am I not surprised? Just disappointed in you. Such potential.”

A user also said that using gender pronouns is the decent thing to do adding, “Respecting pronouns is a basic act of decency, not an illness. Using someone’s correct pronouns is the bare minimum, to respect LGBTQ+ folks. You’re tweeting this just a month before Pride Month is celebrated and I’d suggest you take this time to follow thought queer leaders in India to understand their journey, struggles and needs. If you’d like a few recommendations to some individuals, organisations and workshop facilitators doing the important work of LGBTQ+ advocacy and education, hit me up.”