Thread by @schock

Did you know that AI has always been in bed with binary gender classification? The original Turing Test itself isn't a computer that can convince a person it's a human - it's a machine that can pass as a woman better than a man can. Like if you knew, RT if that's news to you ;)

https://twitter.com/schock/status/1344379751570534402

In "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (1950), Turing's 'Imitation Game:' "3 people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex." The object of the game is for C to determine which of A or B is man and which is woman.
academic.oup.com/mind/article/L…

Since the voice is often a tell when trying to pass (as I can confirm from personal experience), Turing suggests "In order that tones of voice may not help the interrogator the answers should be written, or better still, typewritten."

"Better still, typewritten" presumably, since our mannish hands can't mimic dainty lady letters? Anyway, moving on...

Turing: "We now ask the question, ‘What will happen when a machine takes the part of A in this game?’ Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a man and a woman?"

"These questions replace our original, ‘Can machines think?’"

There you have it. Passing, within a binary gender framework, is the classic core measure of machine intelligence.

Read it for yourself: academic.oup.com/mind/article/L…

And read J. Halberstam's brilliant analysis, "Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the Age of the Intelligent Machine" jstor.org/stable/pdf/317…

PS I demand "Interrogator (C)" as a possible gender marker on all official documents please