I agree with your conclusion (that this is sexist), but not for the reasons you state. Correlation and causation, and all that. If crappy programmers make crap

I agree with your conclusion (that this is sexist), but not for the reasons you state. Correlation and causation, and all that. If crappy programmers make crappy chatbots, and they all have female pictures, then people's disdain would not be caused by a sexist reasoning, but by the widespread practice of using female pictures in crappy chatbots. I have no idea how would one go about testing this theory, specially when I believe your conclusion to be correct to begin with. But I can see why other commenters would disagree.