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posted by martyb on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the voices-carry dept.

United Nations: Siri and Alexa Are Encouraging Misogyny

We already knew humans could make biased AIs — but the United Nations says the reverse is true as well.

Millions of people talk to AI voice assistants, such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. When those assistants talk back, they do so in female-sounding voices, and a new UN report argues that those voices and the words they're programmed to say amplify gender biases and encourage users to be sexist — but it's not too late to change course.

The report is the work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and its title — "I'd blush if I could" — is the response Siri was programmed in 2011 to give if a user called her a "bitch."

[...] "It is a 'Me Too' moment," Saniye Gülser Corat, Director of UNESCO's Division for Gender Equality, told CBS News. "We have to make sure that the AI we produce and that we use does pay attention to gender equality."

Also at CNET.

[Back in 2013 in Germany, Siri's voice could be selected as either male or female.

Possibly one of the earliest and best-known "computer voices" was that of Majel Barrett from ST:TOS, although a case could be made for HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. --Ed.]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:42PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:42PM (#847928)

    You do realize gender progression among fully healthy societal in the last years, right?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:45PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @05:45PM (#847930)

    And you do realize there are 2?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @06:16PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @06:16PM (#847934)

      You do realize humans evolve, right? They may have started with two but have increased to more.

      • (Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday May 26 2019, @06:28PM (5 children)

        Stupid isn't a gender.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @06:40PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @06:40PM (#847940)

          You do realize stupid is a gender right? The taxonomic term is type 3-Beta cis-female: http://www.genderads.com/styled-8/photos-16/ [genderads.com]

          • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:26PM (1 child)

            by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:26PM (#847950) Journal

            Nice try, but that's really more about stereotypes associating stupid with female and that this is not done to men (the validity of which is a different discussion.)
             
            Regardless,

            If they were to write "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" today we would need a larger solar system.

            --
            В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:44PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @07:44PM (#847956)

              No in lay-speak it is more like saying "dumb blonds". That is a totally different gender than "funny lesbian brunettes".

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday May 27 2019, @12:24AM

            Nope. There are only three genders. Male. Female. And the kind where you drink so much gin that you forget how to spell it.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @04:51PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @04:51PM (#848210)

          But as we see almost every day it is an avian. You had a Dodo somewhere in your family line.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @08:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @08:23PM (#847976)

        Neither is idiot a gender.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @01:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @01:31PM (#848176)

      2 is a really hard concept though!

            - Confused Millenial