How would a trans-exclusive lesbian dating app exclude trans people?

Did you miss this news about a new female-only dating app?

Jenny Watson's "L Community...claimed it could identify and exclude trans women to a rate of 99.89% accuracy using AI-powered 'sex recognition software.'"

I missed it! Did not know!

However: "As of Aug. 7, more than 60 days since launching, the website couldn’t even break 100 users."

Does the AI facial recognition work? "Watson initially claimed that her AI-powered software only messed up 0.10% of the time. She provided no proof to verify the claim."

"Fundamentally, Watson’s model wants to differentiate between ciswomen and transwomen. Since existing computer models successfully read transwomen as women most (87.3% per Scheuerman) of the time, Watson likely needed to train her model specifically for its task.

The specifics of Watson’s model remain under wraps. But ostensibly to get the level of accuracy, Watson’s model must have been trained on photos of both transgender women and cisgender women, in addition to transmen. This raises questions of consent."

Lots of trans people pass for cis in our post-transition genders. Not all do, nor is it required that we try to do so. But many simply do. We are simply perceived as members of our gender. The question of how anyone would reliably exclude all trans people is a question that could be raised anywhere in life — dating app or no, AI or no.

Read more: How I — a trans man — went undercover on a TERF dating site: Female-only app asserts lesbians must be ‘biologically female’, Henry Carnell, Washington Blade, August 13, 2024