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Earlier quoted context omitted.
The question is then why hi-pitched male voice could not have been used?
Because natural male voice is generally lower than female voice. Also there is research on gender neutral voice (like this https://www.genderlessvoice.com/ ) but as you can hear, the voice is everything but natural and easy to understand
I think the article totally miss the point of why we use female (high pitch) voice instead of male (low pitch) voice. In a public environment, the majority of the lower spectrum of sound is flooded with the surrounding noise what means that if a low pitch noise is used it will barely be understable. High pitch voices are well better in theses cases because it uses the less busy part of the sound spectrum resulting in…
There's also this thing with having a "soft voice", that's something much more often attributed to women than men (IME – can't remember hearing that said about a man, like, ever). But in a relatively quiet environment, I pretty much never notice any difference in loudness, nor on recordings, and it's definitely not a shyness thing. But they still get drowned out much, much easier in public spaces than my own male voice, and it's visibly frustrating having to almost scream to just be understood while I can talk normally. That was a pretty regular thing during lunch break for a while when I worked in a team with several women who had that issue.
And finally, while I may be really weird in that regard and everyone else here just processes content and not the voice that's talking, but female and male voices really do have very different emotional coloring for me. I think my native country is still a bit behind when it comes to ubiquitous disembodied female voices, but I'll readily believe it works, and I don't have difficulty imagining the emotional part of the message hinges at least partly on its femininity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because natural male voice is generally lower than female voice. Also there is research on gender neutral voice (like this https://www.genderlessvoice.com/ ) but as you can hear, the voice is everything but natural and easy to understand
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I think the article totally miss the point of why we use female (high pitch) voice instead of male (low pitch) voice. In a public environment, the majority of the lower spectrum of sound is flooded with the surrounding noise what means that if a low pitch noise is used it will barely be understable. High pitch voices are well better in theses cases because it uses the less busy part of the sound spectrum resulting in…
The question is then why hi-pitched male voice could not have been used?
The famous "mind the gap" is from a man. British Siri was always a male voice. The automatic-semi-recored voice in German trains is male. This 10 year old CNN article is way more informing: https://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-co... For example female voices for early radar systems were chosen, because their voices stand out from the male fighter pilots. Sexist? Maybe, but also a smart and pragma…
After having learned of Critical Theory these disingenuous cynical pieces are easier to spot. She repeatedly calls female voices "disembodied" as if male ones aren't or the solution is to have the speakers encased in female puppets.
The famous "mind the gap" is from a man. British Siri was always a male voice. The automatic-semi-recored voice in German trains is male. This 10 year old CNN article is way more informing: https://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-co... For example female voices for early radar systems were chosen, because their voices stand out from the male fighter pilots. Sexist? Maybe, but also a smart and pragma…
Does it? I've had it set to a female voice since, uhm, forever...?
I am absolutely guilty of sexism towards my AI assistants, but it's in a congratulatory way. On Google Home, I have an issue whereby it often thinks I'm speaking Italian when I'm not, hence doing the wrong thing. I set the Italian responder to be male (like I am), and the English one to female; so when I hear a male response I think "stupid man is stupid", repeat the command more clearly, and get a "competent female" voice who will do the right thing.
Siri does not have this sort of granularity, you have to switch languages manually - which makes it less flexible but, I guess, slightly more precise (although it's still just Bad pretty often).
The point of this article seems to hinge on gender roles, specifically a submissive and polite attitude (assumed if I'm not mistaken because it sounds feminine). Regardless of whether or not that makes sense, an announcer such as the ones described always tells us things unilaterally and without recourse: The train is late, we're all requested to go left, your plane is delayed, your plane must now be boarded, etc. It…
One could say that plays into a certain type of "bitchy, commandeering" female stereotypes. Which is why this sort of analysis is often fluff with an agenda - once you're determined to find bad elements in human behaviour, you will find something.
It is not a pleasant voice. I've name it after my ex wife, because it's always telling me what to do.
This is particularly annoying in Oregon, where the max speed was raised from 55 years ago, and she will tell you every five seconds that "You are exceeding the posted speed limit. ... You are exceeding the posted speed limit. ..." So you turn off the voice (which I could never do when I was married), and give up the other useful voice functions.
The optical scanner advertisement from 1968 was interesting. "16 legs and eight wagging tongues." I was a teenager then, and I can imagine women being annoyed by that ad, and me and other men being dismissive. To our discredit, despite it being "a different time."
Maybe I'll rename my Qualcomm to George. (Although she really was always telling me what to do.)