Why is the gender of artificial intelligence often female?

Virtual assistants on mobile devices are a common representation of artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is usually female

This is a technology product that not only appears regularly on science fiction films or laboratories but has been existing in our daily lives. Currently, we have Apple's Siri virtual assistant, Cortana of Microsoft and many generations of AI being developed in every corner of the world. But do you realize that it seems that most artificial intelligence systems are "women" . Why so?

Karl Fredric MacDorman, a computer scientist and human communicator - computer expert at Purdue University and Indiana University, said: "I think there is a pattern in this regard. The answer to this question is not easy to do . " MacDorman hypothesizes that one of the reasons is that artificial intelligence (AI) and human beings are often designed to perform tasks related to women . For example, many generations of robots are designed with the task of assisting, personal assistants or guides at the museum, . and these are all jobs often done by women.

In addition, many engineers designed these machines to be men . MacDorman said that "men are always attracted to women and women, it is easier to compromise with people of the same sex. " That's the MacDorman expert's comments and opinions about the gender of AI after the process. research. Let's learn more about your research.

Siri's voice

It can be said that Siri is one of the typical examples of AI . In Northern Europe, the name Siri for "a beautiful woman will lead you to success " and Siri's default voice is actually from the American named Samantha. According to Apple spokesman, the company bought Siri since 2010 from the non-profit international research organization SRI. Currently, the company allows users to adjust Siri's voice to be male or female and support a lot of different languages.

MacDorman experts have done a lot of research to understand the responses of men and women when communicating with voices of different genders. In one experiment, he played videos with male and female voices and asked volunteers which voice they prefer to hear. At the same time, the team also conducts tests that measure the interests and inner thoughts of volunteers about the gender of the voice.

The end result, men said they liked listening to female voices. More interestingly, in the subconscious of the female volunteers, they also like to listen to the sounds coming from the same sex with them even though they do not speak out. MacDorman said: " I think there is a stigma that makes men dislike listening to men's voices. But this stigma doesn't exist for women ." That is the conclusion about the voice of the virtual assistant.

Is the logic correct for identity robots?

According to Professor of Humanity and Sociology at London School Kathleen Richardson: "When it comes to the voice of an invisible form of AI, the ability to use female voices may be higher than men. But if people want to creating a real-life robot that fully simulates human characteristics (humanoid), its gender is almost always male.If it was originally decided to design a female robot , its shape must be a beautiful, attractive and beautiful young girl. "

Typically, robot researcher Hiroshi Ishiguro at Osaka University, Japan created Repliee R1 robot inspired by his 5-year-old daughter. In addition, Ishiguro developed the Repliee robot model Q1Expo modeled after the identity of Ayako Fujii, a female announcer on Japanese national television. Recently, Ishiguro also collaborated with the maker of Kokoro robots to develop robots to serve at a hotel in Japan. Accordingly, this team of robots is shaped like a Japanese girl and takes on tasks from reception, waiter, cleaning and customer service.

Professor Richardson said: "I think this reflects what a part of men are thinking about women. They think that women are not entirely human. What people think is necessary is it. will be replicated, but if you want to develop more complex robot generations, they must be men. " Another reason given by Professor Richardson is that the creation of female robots will create a less threatening or friendly feeling than men. And this is similar to creating robots with child form.