Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
theatlantic.com
Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#2Ignores the #1 reason I use chose the female voice for most electronics. It sounds better and is more clearly understood coming out of under powered speakers at low volume.
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#3I like how he ignores that the British Siri is male... And even goes so far as to admit he's doing so.
"That's women's work" doesn't really hold up for me. I have never once thought, "I have a question. I'd better go find a woman to ask, because that's women's work." I don't even think that "female" is a helpdesk stereotype. I certainly don't have any expectations when I start looking for a help desk.
Now if he had said that people associate 'friendly' voices with women, and 'competitive' voices with men, that would fall along more typical stereotypes, and I might believe that. Maybe.
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#4Because we like girls more.
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#5Because we like girls more.
We being the male-dominated environment in which these robot helpers are developed.
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#6I've heard anecdotally that the reason computer voices and avatars tend to be women is that people tend to respond better and believe the data more.
The story that was told to me (don't know if it's true, couldn't find a link) was that they did testing on astronauts and they found that the male astronauts tended to disagree more with a male voice. Whereas "the voice of mother" was more likely to be found credible.
Again, I don't know if it's true, but it seemed to make sense to me at the time.
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#7I remember hearing somewhere that the voice system in fighter planes is female because if a man is at the edge of losing consciousness (as fighter pilots can be during high-g maneuvers because of blood rushing away from their heads towards their legs), the sound of a woman's voice is more likely to keep him conscious.
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#8At the very beginning of the article, the author claims robots (as opposed to bodiless ai voices). She mentions Rosie as an exception, but I can think of a whole bunch more. The terminator from T3, the sexy robots from Svedka's vodka campaign, even the robot from 1927's metropolis. I think it is worth noting that all of these robots (except for Rosie, of course) fall under the category of sexy robot. But I also think this is pretty clearly a not well thought out article. And I, myself, certainly wouldn't make the claim that all female robots with bodies are sexy after spending all of 30 seconds brainstorming on it... as opposed to the author of the article...
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#9[deleted]
Re: Siri and Her Girls: Why So Many Robot Helpers Are Ladies
#10I like how he ignores that the British Siri is male... And even goes so far as to admit he's doing so. "That's women's work" doesn't really hold up for me. I have never once thought, "I have a question. I'd better go find a woman to ask, because that's women's work." I don't even think that "female" is a helpdesk stereotype. I certainly don't have any expectations when I start looking for a help desk. Now if he had s…
Also ignored are the facts that some of the most memorable AI voices were male, e.g. HAL and Knight Industries Two Thousand.