Why are all (or so many) AI prototypes female?

AI and digital assistants are being designed to perform tasks for us. But does that mean they need to be female AI prototypes only?

Whether it’s Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, or Microsoft’s Cortana, there’s something they share in common besides being AI assistants – a female name. We may not be fully aware, but we use them from business to leisure, from using an app to switching on a bulb. But why do majority of these AI personas have to be females?

Females have a pleasant voice

Karl F. MacDorman, an Associate Professor at Indiana University, came out with a research, which explained how men and women reacted to male and female voices. After hearing the two voices, it was found that both men and women respondents preferred the female voice over the male one as they found it warmer, welcoming, and more understanding. Clifford Nass, a communication professor at Stanford said that human brain is developed to appreciate female voices more. From telephone operators to voice prompts in cars, all have traditionally been female voices. This has made people accustomed to hearing advice from a disembodied woman! Coupled with that, we are also socially conditioned to believe that a woman can carry out tasks of assistance better than a man, which further explains why AI prototypes are females.

Females are considered subservient and less threatening

One reason could be the way our society stereotypically defines gender roles. Women are  considered to be the more docile and subservient sex out of the two. We are trained to react, relate, and interact with both the genders in a particular way. In order to get more customers to adopt their technologies, tech companies are coming up with female AI bots, as they are socially conceived less threatening as compared to their male counterparts. This also has to do with the notion that females are just naturally better at taking and serving instructions, setting appointments, giving reminders, and having an eye for detail.

Fewer females involved in AI research

While in 1985, 37% of the total computer-science degrees were earned by women, in 2011 this figure dropped down to a meager 18% according to National Center for Education Statistics. A drop in such numbers implies that with the projected growth of 15-20% in computer science jobs from 2012 to 2022, women will fill really few posts.

AI is an extremely powerful technology and we cannot afford to deprive it of a wider perspective by missing out on the opportunity to involve more women into AI projects. A healthy balance of opinions would also help AI increase its outreach to just a whole new world of applications. Besides, AI can be an effective message from the space of technology to shatter stereotypes as far as gender roles are concerned.