This girls-only app uses AI to screen a user’s gender — what could go wrong?
A photo of women supposedly using giggle, as seen on the company website
A new social app called Giggle is pitching itself as a girls-only networking platform. To sign up, users have to take a selfie. And while that might not sound too invasive, the app then uses “bio-metric gender verification software” to determine whether that person is a woman. If that wasn’t already bad enough, the technology doesn’t work if you’re trans.
“[G]iggle is for all girls,” the company points out on its website, before adding, “Due to the gender-verification software that giggle uses, trans-girls will experience trouble with being verified.” It’s the stuff of a dystopian novel.
Giggle, founded by Australian screenwriter Sall Grover, supposedly looks at the bone structure of a person’s face to determine their gender. That’s...