
An interesting take on how “feminine voice” assistants can hardwire sexism - theknight
https://www.turingtribe.com/story/experts-warn-ai-could-HDbg5i8hvbEs8YxmD
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PaulHoule
It's funny.

Look at science fiction voice assistants and you will find many male voices
such as KITT, Jarvis, etc.

Cortana, Siri, Alexa and others I know are female and I wonder why. I know the
spectral content and legibility of male and female voices are different, but I
do wonder if people feel more comfortable with a female in a "servant" roles
and have the same kind of fear of men that many people have towards black
people.

The evidence is clear that both boys and girls benefit from male role models.
Having a actively involved father is great, but it is also good to have male
teachers and caregivers at the preschool and K-6 levels.

Preschools that hire male workers, however, find it is just a matter of time
before somebody is like "yikes! they have a male working there!" and a
complaint of sexual abuse is filed. Often these turn out to be groundless, but
it can be a big burden on an organization that isn't equipped to handle it.

Although you still hear the broken record that the educational system
discriminates against women, and it probably does in some way, women are
getting better results today from preschool to the PhD. I think growing up in
a female-dominated space might be teaching boys that education is a "girl
thing" the same way that many black people have gotten the idea that education
is a "white thing"

Most commercial voice synthesizers have multiple voices, both male and female
-- I don't think they do it for "political correctness", I think they just
figure people want a choice. Why don't voice assistants give us that choice?

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twodave
Why are we trying to remove gender from everything? It’s one of the great
things in life! Our differences should be appreciated, not ignored and
certainly not attacked.

