Facial recognition isn’t simply racist – it is transphobic.
There isn’t really a way to make AI politically correct. It doesn’t understand the concept.
A female-only app has come under fire for discriminating against transgender women with its facial recognition AI.
Giggle, a social network ‘only for females’, which launched in early 2020, has since been the subject of complaints from transgender women, who told the Verge, that their requests to join have been denied by the app’s facial recognition system, because their features ware not ‘feminine’ enough.
However, now Giggle’s CEO Sall Grover, who is based in Queensland, has doubled down, claiming that there is no space on the app for ‘men claiming to be women’.
It’s not that I don’t “believe” trans women are female. It’s not about belief.
It’s that I acknowledge & live in reality. It’s about fact.
— Sall Grover (@salltweets) January 27, 2022
My comments in full: pic.twitter.com/LGGGpmUYgn
— Sall Grover (@salltweets) January 27, 2022
Grover, who does not believe trans women are female, told Femail: ‘The fact is, women of colour are on Giggle. Giggle is used by women of every race, religion and culture. The quality that Giggle users have in common is they are female.’
The AI Giggle uses for face recognition works by analysing the bone structure of its members, meaning that individuals with masculine features could be prevented from creating an account on the app.
Allegations of transphobia surrounding Giggle first surfaced when the app was created in early 2020.
However, the story has emerged again after LGBTQ+ publication PinkNews approached Grover for comment for an article about the controversy.
An unnamed freelance journalist writing for the publication sent a request for comment, asking whether trans women are ‘encouraged to join the Giggle app’ and whether the issue of facial recognition would be ‘fixed.’
Grover replied to the query, saying: ‘Giggle is a social networking app for females. Males are excluded from the user base. There is no other specific demographic that is excluded from the app other than males.
‘No males are encouraged to join Giggle. Giggle is clearly stated as being for females. It would be lovely, however, if male people respected female spaces and left them alone.’
Welp.
That’s it for them.
It’s been established for years that you are going to be totally destroyed if you refer to trannies as “male.”
It’s just totally not allowed at all.