Amazon Alexa reinforces female stereotyping

The use of female voices on voice-powered virtual assistants, including Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Assistant, portray women as 'obliging, docile and eager-to-please helpers', reinforcing gender stereotypes of women, according to a UNESCO report.

Responses from AI assistants such as Alexa to verbal sexual harassment tend to be 'deflecting, lacklustre or apologetic', the report said, and appeared to show a greater tolerance towards sexual advances from men than from women.

The authors made a series of recommendations on how technology companies can make their virtual assistants less biased, notably by hiring more female programmers and by installing gender-neutral voices rather than making their assistants female by default.

System

• Amazon Alexa developer website

• Amazon Alexa Wikipedia profile

Research, advocacy

• UNESCO (2019). I'd blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education

News, commentary, analysis

• https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/siri-alexa-ai-gender-bias.html

• https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/femalevoiced-ai-assistants-like-alexa-and-google-assistant-reinforce-gender-bias-un-study-says-a4148131.html

• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/22/digital-voice-assistants-siri-alexa-gender-biases-unesco-says#:~:text=Research%20released%20by%20Unesco%20claims,ideas%20of%20women%20as%20subservient.

• https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/21/18634322/amazon-alexa-apple-siri-female-voice-assistants-harmful-gender-stereotypes-new-study

• https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220614-why-your-voice-assistant-might-be-sexist

• https://futurism.com/united-nations-siri-alexa-sexist-ai

• https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/12/18660353/siri-alexa-sexism-voice-assistants-un-study

• https://time.com/5593436/ai-voice-assistants-gender-bias/

• https://news.sky.com/story/amazons-alexa-and-apples-siri-fuel-stereotype-that-women-are-subservient-un-report-11725844

• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexa-siri-other-artificial-intelligence-voice-assistants-gender-bias-unesco/