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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 Monday May 27 2019, @02:26AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @02:26AM (#848071)

    No apostrophe in SJWs.

    - (Grammar) Nazi

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @03:29AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 27 2019, @03:29AM (#848082)

    Actually, that's not right. The same way you'd put 's after CD's to refer to plural CD's (but you would write compact disks, this is because CD is an acronym and the 's isn't part of said acronym). Common practice.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Monday May 27 2019, @06:52AM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 27 2019, @06:52AM (#848121) Journal

      Word Hippo [wordhippo.com] would disagree:

      The noun CD can be countable or uncountable.

      In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will also be CD.

      However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be CDs e.g. in reference to various types of CDs or a collection of CDs.