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How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

openai.com

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Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#51

Post by GaggiX »

thomashop wrote: post #44
GaggiX wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Even my mum sent me a Guardian article about it on Whatsapp. I'm assuming you're trans and you follow or know people who seem to really care about these issues. I think you might be deeply biased, I search for the ChatGPT voice on Google and no one really seems to care about it in a negative way, if there was an actual backlash I would be able to find it easily. >In my opinion, they should have hired a trans person,…

I agree that hiring should be based on skills. Creating a gender-neutral voice option in ChatGPT isn't about excluding male and female voices but promoting inclusivity. Offering a neutral voice by default helps avoid gendered stereotypes and makes technology feel more accessible and less biased. Couldn't the fact that most ChatGPT developers are white, cis-male, and affluent introduce bias that one needs to actively…

>Offering a neutral voice by default helps avoid gendered stereotypes

I think the problem lies with a small group of people online who always see malice first, if the AI has a female voice then it's because people think women are submissive, if the AI has a male voice then it would be the patriarchy, the AI can tell you where to go for example. Some people who want to complain will always find a way to complain, there is nothing wrong with having a female or male voice as the default one.

>most ChatGPT developers are white, cis-male

White and cis doesn't really surprise me, since most of the US is white and cis; Sam Altmam is gay, if this sort of thing actually matters. The smaller presence of women in STEM disciplines is noticeable; for some reason, all of my female friends seem to care far less about computers, probably some bias at portraiting hackers as men in the media or something (even though the vast majority of hackers are indeed men), it's like the chicken or egg dilemma.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#52

Post by iLoveOncall »

thomashop wrote: post #15
iLoveOncall wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Because assigning genders to computers makes as much sense as giving your toaster a name, it’s 2024, so why not keep the gender out of it? The why question is easily answered if you see how many negative reactions their choice of voice caused. A gender-neutral voice would have just avoided annoying a certain percentage of the population, including me. I'm happy if advertising stops hitting the sexy/cliched stereotype…

> A gender-neutral voice would have just avoided annoying a certain percentage of the population, including me.

How do you manage to be annoyed when they offer both male and female voices?

I think you're the problem here buddy.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#53

Post by thomashop »

GaggiX wrote: post #51
thomashop wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that hiring should be based on skills. Creating a gender-neutral voice option in ChatGPT isn't about excluding male and female voices but promoting inclusivity. Offering a neutral voice by default helps avoid gendered stereotypes and makes technology feel more accessible and less biased. Couldn't the fact that most ChatGPT developers are white, cis-male, and affluent introduce bias that one needs to actively…

>Offering a neutral voice by default helps avoid gendered stereotypes I think the problem lies with a small group of people online who always see malice first, if the AI has a female voice then it's because people think women are submissive, if the AI has a male voice then it would be the patriarchy, the AI can tell you where to go for example. Some people who want to complain will always find a way to complain, ther…

I don't think I'm always seeing malice first. I am just tired of the cliched sexy female voice assistant.

Why not choose a gender-neutral voice if it makes a minority more comfortable? Does a gender-neutral voice cause harm to the rest of us?

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#54

Post by iLoveOncall »

thomashop wrote: post #35
GaggiX wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The why question is easily answered if you see how many negative reactions their choice of voice caused. To be honest, this HN thread was the first time I saw someone complaining about male and female voices in ChatGPT. >A gender-neutral voice would have just avoided annoying a certain percentage of the population, including me. The voice actors and actresses hired by OpenAI use their natural voices for training, I…

> To be honest, that HN thread was the first time I saw someone complaining about male and female voices in ChatGPT. It's the fifth place I've seen it since yesterday. And I haven't been looking. Even my mum sent me a Guardian article about it on Whatsapp. Daily show: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/51ucQ4s7Crc In my opinion, they should have hired a trans person, created a gender-neutral voice, and used that as the d…

> In my opinion, they should have hired a trans person, created a gender-neutral voice, and used that as the default.

Estimates for the percentage of transgender people is between 0.1% and 0.6% of the global population.

OpenAI offers 5 voices. I'd say it's perfectly statistically representative of the population.

Also the voice "Breeze" sounds gender-neutral to me.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#55

Post by GaggiX »

thomashop wrote: post #53
GaggiX wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Offering a neutral voice by default helps avoid gendered stereotypes I think the problem lies with a small group of people online who always see malice first, if the AI has a female voice then it's because people think women are submissive, if the AI has a male voice then it would be the patriarchy, the AI can tell you where to go for example. Some people who want to complain will always find a way to complain, ther…

I don't think I'm always seeing malice first. I am just tired of the cliched sexy female voice assistant. Why not choose a gender-neutral voice if it makes a minority more comfortable? Does a gender-neutral voice cause harm to the rest of us?

Like I said, I think the vast majority of the population would find it more natural to have a female or male voice. Also, it's not like everyone in your minority actually cares, I have a few friends who are trans, I doubt they care about the ChatGPT voice. I understand not wanting an overly sexualized voice, but even a male or female voice, I don't get it.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#56

Post by iLoveOncall »

datahack wrote: post #6

Am I the only one that really dislikes these overly perky voices? And the one they used for the demo was GOD AWFUL. If this is what the future sounds like… idk. I was hoping for a calm, neutral and not eager assistant with a little class. A little Jarvis maybe? Something calm and easy on the ears. These all sounded to me like people auditioning for a role in film and television or something.

I use "Cove" which is much more tame that the other by default and (I assume that's the case for all) matches your tone.

So if I'm asking it a question on a neutral tone it will answer in the same way.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#57

Post by iLoveOncall »

thomashop wrote: post #50
GaggiX wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a gender neutral voice? Something that is interpolated between a male and a female voice?

https://www.ted.com/talks/nis_norgaard_how_to_create_a_gende...

It sounds genuinely bad though.

It's from 4 years ago so I assume the quality could be much better, but it still feels a lot less natural than to talk with a "gendered" voice.

I also don't really understand the problem of having only gendered voices. It's not YOUR voice, GPT-4 isn't speaking in your place, it's another entity that has its own voice.

Do you ask people to speak with a gender neutral voice? If not how is that different?

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#59

Post by thomashop »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #57
thomashop wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ted.com/talks/nis_norgaard_how_to_create_a_gende...

It sounds genuinely bad though. It's from 4 years ago so I assume the quality could be much better, but it still feels a lot less natural than to talk with a "gendered" voice. I also don't really understand the problem of having only gendered voices. It's not YOUR voice, GPT-4 isn't speaking in your place, it's another entity that has its own voice. Do you ask people to speak with a gender neutral voice? If not how i…

Yeah, it's not great. I just thought it was interesting someone tried.

I don't know how I got myself into the position in this argument but where I'm coming from is a sexy female voice as the default for a voice assistant seems old-fashioned to me.

It feels like a lot of products are designed by white males and they represent their fantasies and desires. The customers are more diverse than the people designing the products and companies should be mindful of that.

Re: How the voices for ChatGPT were chosen

#60

Post by ahofmann »

Spiwux wrote: post #47
msoad wrote: post #3

Berlin famously casted a gender neutral voice for public transport announcements. It would be nice if OpenAI would have done that too. At least for one of the options. Computers better not have genders imo

They're clearly trying to imitate human interaction, and believe it or not, the vast majority of humans have genders they're perfectly happy with.

Well, but it is not a human. It's a talking computer and trying to sound not like a computer is disingenuous, creepy and heavily misleading. The movie "her" made a good point about that.
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