Gender equality seems as obvious as humanity itself and may be considered as a fundamental right. The talk of gender equality shifts focus on women who are often overshadowed by their male counterparts for some unexplained reasons. Nevertheless, we wonder if the same rule applies for Artificial Intelligence?
We have all become quite used to having a Virtual Assistant these days, be it Cortana, Siri or Alexa. But how many times when you interact with them do you ponder that this AI that I am talking to is a male or a female? If that hasn't crept into your mind, just for the ease of things why don't you ask something to your android or Siri right about now? Chances are they will tell you that they are genderless but you can't but help notice that the voice is unmistakably of a woman.
Apparently, that is the way it works with most of the assistants that are available out there in the market. Although one is not rubbing in sexism and screaming gender equality in here, the fact remains that virtual assistants or AI by default have a female voice.
It's quite surprising that an industry which is sadly very much male dominant will make such a choice, wherein the counter argument is probably anyone will prefer the female voice blurting out information or muttering the words "I don't understand" for a million times even after you have tried your best accent to make it understand.
Somehow, we would vie more towards female assistants than a male every time and thus tech behemoths don't even try to mask it or give an option of a male voice. They would just put it through and let the market decide.
