Siri, is this a win for feminism? Apple's default voice no longer a woman
As of March 31, 2021, when Apple released the
iOs 14.5 beta update to its operating system, Siri no longer defaults to a female
voice when using American English. Users must now choose between two
male and two female voices when enabling the voice assistant. This move could
be interpreted as a response to the backlash against the gender bias embodied by Siri
But how meaningful is this change really?
Siri has been criticized as embodying several facets of gender
bias in artificial intelligence. Digital sociologists Yolande Strengers and
Jenny Kennedy argue that Siri, along with other voice assistants such as Amazon
Alexa and Google Home, have been developed in order to “carry out ‘wifework’ — domestic duties that have traditionally fallen on
(human) wives.”
Siri was originally only voiced as female and programmed to not
only perform “wifely” duties such as checking the weather or setting a morning
alarm, but also to respond flirtatiously. The use of sexualized phrases by Siri
has been extensively documented by hundreds of YouTube videos with titles such
as “Things You Should NEVER Ask SIRI” (which has more than 18
million views).
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