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Women are more likely than men to say 'please' to their smart speaker:
Here's an interesting stat from the Pew Research Center: more than half of smart speaker owners in the US (54 percent) report saying "please" at least occasionally to their AI assistants, with one-in-five (19 percent) saying please frequently. Curiously, the question of AI politeness also breaks down along gender lines, with 62 percent of women reporting that they say "please" at least sometimes, versus 45 percent for men.
Why that might be?
One possible answer is that men are generally ruder to women, and this latter category now includes AI assistants coded as female. Experts have long noted that the design choices for AI bots could have misogynist effects by reinforcing gender stereotypes. "Because the speech of most voice assistants is female, it sends a signal that women are ... docile and eager-to-please helper," a report from the UN noted earlier this year.
It could also be that men just have different attitudes to technology. Culturally speaking, tech is coded as practical and manly, and contrasted with "feminine" disciplines. Studies show men feel more comfortable with technology, and express more interest in "mastering" it as a tool. These biases could be affecting the issue of politeness to AI.
Sadly, Pew didn't ask respondents why they felt they had to say please or not to these bots, so we can only speculate on the topic. But the broader issue is certainly an interesting one: do you need to be polite to AI assistants?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by deimios on Monday November 25 2019, @04:25AM (10 children)
I've observed my SO tends to attribute feelings and motivations to things that clearly lack them. Example: NPC animals in games, the AI assistant, plants etc..
So of course she tends to speak in a more endearing way to them since she doesn't want to hurt their "feelings".
I on the other hand see these things as objects with programmed behavior so I treat them as such.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 25 2019, @04:52AM (2 children)
I don't know if this is gender-specific. Case in point: Akikan [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday November 25 2019, @09:37AM
That's not about anthropomorphizing inanimate objects because men think they have feelings, but rather because cute girls are cute.
Also, Japan may not be the best example, as there is a cultural belief that inanimate objects have souls of sorts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukumogami [wikipedia.org]
https://www.ancient.eu/Kami/ [ancient.eu]
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday November 25 2019, @06:30PM
The first sentence of that article is absolute perfection.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 25 2019, @04:54AM
"attribute feelings and motivations to things that clearly lack them. Example: [...] plants"
Plants are alive and have feelings. They work with humans to our mutual benefit. Plants win, humans win.
Khazar jews on the other hand have no feelings and clearly lack emotions because they are not human.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday November 25 2019, @06:10AM (1 child)
If I'll ever use a voice activated virtual assistant, it is very likely I'll continue to use 'please', for now other reason than I'm lazy. Because
1. it saves me the effort of having to make a case-by-case distinction, when, bottom line, there's none - in both of the cases I'm asking for a service
2, 'please' is one syllable, 'sudo' is two
See? Anthropomorphizing is not the only explanation possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday November 25 2019, @02:50PM
I would not, intentionally use a voice activated "digital"assistant - and when I accidentally do so, they rarely understand me anyway.
However, some of the digital assistants have more digits than you give them credit for - they are actually humans locked in a call centre
and trained to act like bots. Maybe failing to understand me is part of the pretence that they are not human?
Maybe its better not to say please so as to give the impression we are fooled into thinking they are not really humans in disguise.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday November 25 2019, @06:31AM (2 children)
Yep, men never Anthropomorphize cars.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Bot on Monday November 25 2019, @08:29PM (1 child)
That's about the only right thing men do. If the sweet four eyes of an alfa and her purring dohc twin carbs don't give you a erection there is something wrong with you.
There is rationality and there is dogma. Rational is "it's silly to say Alexa please". Dogmatic is thinking that systemd is only a computer program so it cannot hate you. He does, he does...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday November 26 2019, @06:55PM
Love Alpha's, Love my 'Vette, Love anything that has that sweet low rumble at idle and jungle cat roar on launch!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 25 2019, @04:03PM
I don't have any myself (even on my phone) but when I'm around other people's spy devices I talk to them like I'm their pimp for the sheer unadulterated fun of it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.