Let it Be Resolved: It’s a Net Positive for Gender Equality for AI Assistants to Be Female
Over the past few years, there’s been a big push for gender advancement, particularly in the tech industry. That’s a good thing given just how little gender equality there currently is. Just consider that among chief executives of S&P 1500 firms, there are more men named John, (not to mention Robert, William, and James) than there are women. Meanwhile, at the biggest tech companies across North America, female representation is a disappointing 19 to 28 percent. And, in Canada, only five percent of tech companies have a female CEO.
It was against this backdrop that we decided to host an Oxford-style debate on gender representation at our AI in the 6ix meetup last month. Specifically, we asked our panelists to debate whether the growing popularity of female AI assistants (think Siri, Alexa, and Cortana to name just a few) is a good thing for gender advancement.
Our debaters advocating the importance of having female AI assistants were Andy Mauro (Co-Founder and CEO, Automat.ai) and Natalie Fratto (Vice President of Canadian Expansion at Silicon Valley Bank). Meanwhile on the opposing side, we had Alyssa Atkins (VP Marketing at CareGuide) and Mike Murchison (CEO, Ada). You can watch the whole debate for yourself below, but here’s a quick recap of some of the key points each team put forth:
Having Female AI Assistants Is Good
- The reality is that the gender of your AI assistant doesn’t matter. What does is the personality traits that we assign to that assistant. The problem is that most assistants are docile and subservient and also happen to also be women (which studies have shown people prefer). But rather than changing the gender of the AI assistant to male or trying to make them all gender-neutral, what we should really be focused on is changing the character traits associated with those assistants.
- AI is going to get exponentially better over the years to come. If we make all of today’s AI assistants male, we may be running the risk of having them all be male in the future. And that’s not good for gender equality. The fact that Siri, Cortana, Alexa and Google Home are all personified as women is actually great (and will be even better as they continue to improve), so we shouldn’t be looking to change that.
Having Female AI Assistants Is Bad
- It’s a detrimental way to depict women because it suggests that they’re excessively polite and deferential, and only speak when spoken to. Common refrains like “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that” create the impression that they’re less intelligent.
- Having female AI assistants reinforces the idea that women are subservient. Historically, women have been limited in their careers to secretarial-type roles. Female AI assistants perpetuate that stereotype and stand in stark contrast to male voices, which are typically reserved for much more analytical systems like IBM Watson.
- Last, but not least, having female AI assistants normalizes the exertion of power and control over women. People treat Siri and Alexa like their a possession, and that could lead them to objectify women as well.
So who’s right? Should AI assistants be male, female, or gender neutral? Does it even matter? To see the full debate and find out which side won, check out the video below. Full disclosure, the audio is a bit rough in some places, but if you can get past that the content is excellent.
And for more on the role of gender in technology, see this recent post.
