Noted very clever man and definitely good businessman Elon Musk has again demonstrated why he isn’t a scientist, with him completely missing the point around trans identity following a post about artificial intelligence of all things.
Musk, who seems to spend more time responding to people on Twitter than actually running it, responded to a semi-viral tweet from reporter Elijah Schaffer. The journalist had used an artificial intelligence chatbot to ask the very simple question of “can kids be transgender”, to which the A.I. essentially said yes, in a very long-winded way.
The South African billionaire responded to this in the most normal way possible, with a strange appeal to scientific authority which really doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny. His jargon-laden seems to think the A.I. isn’t scientific because it doesn’t express doubt, but really just seems like him justifying his bigotry.
One of Musk’s children from his first marriage came out as trans in 2022, with them deciding to ditch their father’s name in order to completely sever association with him. Musk has espoused plenty of transphobic and generally anti-queer bile, which once famously led to Grimes saying she didn’t think hate was really in his heart.
Truly, it’s pretty bizarre Musk has a child who is trans, yet continues to vilify and alienate them. You’d have thought being a father would involve loving and supporting them no matter what. Whether Musk actually believes in the transphobia he spreads, or is just endearing himself to bigots, is hard to truly say.
The medical science is in around trans lives, and every major medical association agrees gender dysphoria and gender reaffirming care is the way to go. Alienating trans people seems to come almost entirely from people who’ve never known a trans person in their life, nor do they understand the difficulties of realizing you’re not cisgender.
As for artificial intelligence, it’s really not as amazing as some would want you to think it is. The lack of doubt is done on purpose, as Professor Toby Walsh of the University of New South Wales’ AI Institute explained recently. “They’ll say it in very convincing ways as well, with great confidence,” he told Lens.
Hopefully Musk starts to think a bit deeper about A.I. beyond “Wow, isn’t technology cool”.