Wearables — Week11
Reading response
“Asking more of Siri and Alexa: feminine persona in service of surveillance capitalism.” by Heather Suzanne Woods.
From Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Assistant, and Mi’s Xiao AI, when the smart assistant is turned on, the female voice is always broadcast by default.
Some people may say that “studies have shown that women’s voices are friendlier and less hostile than men’s, and the public prefer female voice as a voice assistant.”. But in real life, many reports point out that men’s voices, and even men’s names, are more persuasive and powerful in the workplace. So what people prefer is not the female voice itself, but the connection between the female voice and the “assistant.”
While in real life, we are used to assistants being women, being served by women, and having women(moms) at home to take care of things in our lives, voice assistants are designed as women, which simply replicates gender role expectations in life and reinforces gender stereotypes.
Voice is an interactive way in the next era, which is influencing our cognition and behavior. The world is diverse, and technology-driven voice assistants should be diverse, too.
Besides, I found a genderless smart voice assistant. Its name is Q.
Its voice is not a female voice or a male voice. Sometimes it feels like a male voice, sometimes it feels like a female voice. It is quite amazing, and the sound is very comfortable to listen to.
