Microsoft AI Aggregates Lies From the Daily Caller
There are no medical interventions for transgender young before puberty. A false Daily Caller story claiming otherwise was disseminated by Microsoft’s AI-powered MSN service.
by Evan Urquhart
A made-up story from the far-right Daily Caller was promoted by Microsoft’s MSN news service today, in a troubling continuation of issues with MSN’s AI-powered offerings. The Caller’s story, which makes the absurd claim that toddlers are receiving sex changes in North Carolina, is part of the extreme right’s ongoing effort to increase fear and hatred towards the trans community by spreading misinformation.
Contrary to the MSN-boosted fake news story, there are no medical steps that are either recommended or necessary for any trans child before the onset of puberty. While gender dysphoria often begins in early childhood, only some children require medical steps like puberty blockers or hormone therapy, and those are only needed after the onset of puberty. What children and families recieve before that time is counseling and emotional support, which is increasingly necessary in a poisoned atmosphere of hatred towards transgender people.
screenshot from MSN.com
By amplifying false news from extremist outlets, Microsoft is participating in an activist campaign which aims to eliminate transgender people from public life. Readers who are unfamiliar with transgender medical care will be misled into believing that “sex change therapies” are performed on children. Research has shown that the only effective treatment for persistent gender dysphoria is an individually tailored transition, which for youngsters involves purely cosmetic, reversible changes such as haircuts or choosing a nickname.
MSN publishing fake news is not a brand new problem. The service reportedly fired its human editorial team last year, replacing human judgment with an algorithm (which is sometimes also referred to as an AI or artificial intelligence). In December, this caused the service to surface made-up stories about Bigfoot and Mermaids. Much like Bigfoot and Mermaids, medical transition for young children is a fantasy. Unfortunately it’s one that has caused untold harm to families of transgender youth, fueling bans on necessarily medical care for adolescents and opening the door for state authorities to kidnap children from their loving parents.