The ubiquitous voice assistants , many of which borrow the vocal cords of women, only reinforce outdated gender stereotypes , according to a recent report by the United Nations (UN) .
could” in reference to Siri's response when sexual requests reach her ears, explores the effects of voice assistants (really full of inherited prejudices) on society.
Signed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and bolivia phone number Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the report states that by assigning women's names and voices to voice assistants, technology companies are only fuelling antediluvian and negative perceptions about women.
UNESCO criticises tech companies for failing to act as safeguards against hostile, abusive and markedly sexist language. In fact, many voice assistants (Siri among them) tend to downplay verbal aggression and respond to it with small jokes . For example, if the user asks Siri to make a sandwich, the famous voice assistant pulls the following response out of its hat: “I can’t. I don’t have any condiments.”
The prejudices of the predominantly male workforce at "techie" companies are evident in voice assistants
“Companies such as Apple and Amazon, with predominantly male engineering teams, have engineered artificial intelligence systems so that their deliberately feminized voice assistants respond to verbal abuse with an attitude surprisingly close to flirting,” the UN investigation says.