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If Apple copies anything from us, I hope they copy this: The computer-generated voice we used in the Spectacles V4 out-of-box experience tutorial is a gender-n

If Apple copies anything from us, I hope they copy this: The computer-generated voice we used in the Spectacles V4 out-of-box experience tutorial is a gender-neutral voice. We did this as the start of a journey of attempting to convince the software industry to stop making A.I. assistants be female so often. Having female A.I. assistants perpetuates the gender wage gap by creating the idea that assistant jobs are a women's role. This is a big issue that needs to be tackled and I'm proud to have helped with it in a small way. If anyone reading this works on Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Assistant, please consider asking your management to adopt gender-neutral voice technology. Here is UNESCO imploring companies to do this: https://en.unesco.org/EQUALS/voice-assistants https://en.unesco.org/EQUALS/voice-assistants "[UNESCO] advises companies and governments to, among other actions: end the practice of making digital assistants female by default; explore the feasibility of developing a neutral machine gender for voice assistants that is neither male nor female"

corndoge 5y ago
This is such a weird response to a technical criticism, do you have anything to say about anything the parent poster said?
- upwardbound 5y ago
  Oh, I totally understand the parent poster's perspective and they might 100% be right. If I were a betting man I would bet on Apple; who wouldn't? Only time will tell; I wasn't trying to refute the parent poster in any way. Was just highlighting an aspect of Specs that I really believe in that isn't in the press and wanted to put this somewhere that someone from Apple might hopefully read it.
  - mercutio2 5y ago
    Perhaps you didn’t realize Apple already made exactly this change in a recent update?
    - upwardbound 5y ago
      correct, I totally did not and that is amazing!! Just three more to go :) Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant.
ffggvv 5y ago
>> Having female A.I. assistants perpetuates the gender wage gap by creating the idea that assistant jobs are a women's role. is there any proof of this or does it just sound true therefore its true? Specifically theres two claims here that i don't see any data backing up: 1. Female voices of AI creates the idea that assistants jobs are a women's role. 2. Assistants jobs being perceived as a woman's role somehow makes the (nonexistent) wage gap worse. Despite the fact that assistants tend to make more money than garbagemen. (a field dominated by men)
- robotresearcher 5y ago
  There is human factors work on the gender of voice interfaces. A notable real world example is the voice that firmly proposes 'Pull up!' if you're about to fly into the ground in many aircraft. Wikipedia is missing refs, but here's the entry on choosing the gender of this voice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_warning_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_warning_system [edit] originally quoted the first part of the section that cited early work finding women's voices to be more effective, but later work challenges this finding. I removed the quote to avoid implying I believe either way.
  - ffggvv 5y ago
    thats interesting but nonetheless has no bearing on these specific claims. if anything it counters the claims as it says a female voice is more authoritative whereas the original poster said it makes them seem like an assistant or submissive and somehow affects their wages. also your example is one where they shaped the assistant based on the humans perception. whereas the poster is claiming the assistant shapes the humans perception.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- upwardbound 5y ago
  Both of these topics are covered extensively in the long-form version of the UNESCO report. The link I posted was just a summary; here is the long form: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.page=85 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.page=85
mrandish 5y ago
Someday consumer grade mobile voice assistants will be feature complete and bulletproof enough that adding a gender-neutral voice will be the highest user value feature to invest limited development resources into. Based on my recent experience trying to support my elderly mother's desire to "talk to her phone to do things", that day is not imminent.
canadianfella 5y ago
What the hell is this?
deepakkarki 5y ago
Alternatively if the voice were male you'd have people complaining that it reinforces the idea that technology is male centric and it further alienates women in tech. But yeah, I'd love gender neutral voice assistants as well.
jeffgreco 5y ago
iOS offers the choice between male and female assistant voices and has removed a default. https://www.theverge.com/22364180/how-to-change-siri-voice-ios-14-5-defaults https://www.theverge.com/22364180/how-to-change-siri-voice-i...
- upwardbound 5y ago
  That's amazing!!! I didn't know they had implemented this now, thank you so much for sharing!

corndoge 5y ago

This is such a weird response to a technical criticism, do you have anything to say about anything the parent poster said?

upwardbound 5y ago
Oh, I totally understand the parent poster's perspective and they might 100% be right. If I were a betting man I would bet on Apple; who wouldn't? Only time will tell; I wasn't trying to refute the parent poster in any way. Was just highlighting an aspect of Specs that I really believe in that isn't in the press and wanted to put this somewhere that someone from Apple might hopefully read it.
- mercutio2 5y ago
  Perhaps you didn’t realize Apple already made exactly this change in a recent update?
  - upwardbound 5y ago
    correct, I totally did not and that is amazing!! Just three more to go :) Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant.

ffggvv 5y ago

>> Having female A.I. assistants perpetuates the gender wage gap by creating the idea that assistant jobs are a women's role. is there any proof of this or does it just sound true therefore its true? Specifically theres two claims here that i don't see any data backing up: 1. Female voices of AI creates the idea that assistants jobs are a women's role. 2. Assistants jobs being perceived as a woman's role somehow makes the (nonexistent) wage gap worse. Despite the fact that assistants tend to make more money than garbagemen. (a field dominated by men)

robotresearcher 5y ago
There is human factors work on the gender of voice interfaces. A notable real world example is the voice that firmly proposes 'Pull up!' if you're about to fly into the ground in many aircraft. Wikipedia is missing refs, but here's the entry on choosing the gender of this voice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_warning_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_warning_system [edit] originally quoted the first part of the section that cited early work finding women's voices to be more effective, but later work challenges this finding. I removed the quote to avoid implying I believe either way.
- ffggvv 5y ago
  thats interesting but nonetheless has no bearing on these specific claims. if anything it counters the claims as it says a female voice is more authoritative whereas the original poster said it makes them seem like an assistant or submissive and somehow affects their wages. also your example is one where they shaped the assistant based on the humans perception. whereas the poster is claiming the assistant shapes the humans perception.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
upwardbound 5y ago
Both of these topics are covered extensively in the long-form version of the UNESCO report. The link I posted was just a summary; here is the long form: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.page=85 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.page=85

mrandish 5y ago

Someday consumer grade mobile voice assistants will be feature complete and bulletproof enough that adding a gender-neutral voice will be the highest user value feature to invest limited development resources into. Based on my recent experience trying to support my elderly mother's desire to "talk to her phone to do things", that day is not imminent.

canadianfella 5y ago

What the hell is this?

deepakkarki 5y ago

Alternatively if the voice were male you'd have people complaining that it reinforces the idea that technology is male centric and it further alienates women in tech. But yeah, I'd love gender neutral voice assistants as well.

jeffgreco 5y ago

iOS offers the choice between male and female assistant voices and has removed a default. https://www.theverge.com/22364180/how-to-change-siri-voice-ios-14-5-defaults https://www.theverge.com/22364180/how-to-change-siri-voice-i...

upwardbound 5y ago
That's amazing!!! I didn't know they had implemented this now, thank you so much for sharing!