Why are all virtual assistants women?



    Have you noticed, in our world everything is so arranged that you can find pros and cons everywhere, black and white, male and female? It is clear that 76.1 percent of men are on Habré , therefore, if you experience strict antagonism to thematic posts, you can safely not read further. Under the cut a lot of pictures and a couple of interesting stories about why modern virtual assistants speak with female voices.



    Scientists argue that finding a female voice that everyone likes is much easier than a male one. The female voice is associated with the voice of the mother, and therefore most people tend to respond positively to it.



    The predecessors of virtual assistants — telephonists, dispatchers, secretaries — were mostly women. Back in the forties, American military pilots “affectionately” called the on-board robot “Bitching Betty” for the peculiar intonation of a mechanized voice. By the end of the 20th century, when voice systems moved from aircraft to cars, manufacturers even had to complain: for example, in the 1990s, BMW customers (naturally, men) opposed the built-in GPS navigator to speak in a female voice. They did not want to “listen to a woman” behind the wheel! The Soviet experience was the scoring of autoinformers in the Moscow metro. Have you ever noticed that all stations heading to the center announce a male voice, and from the center - female? This initiative was proposed by the Society of the Blind in 1984 for the convenience of orienting visually impaired passengers, however, the people quickly developed their own association: a boss (man) calls to the center (to work), and a woman calls from the center (home). Such an example of everyday, subconscious sexism is by no means uncommon, but ardent feminists will consider it a crime.



    It is likely that in everyday life, each of us has repeatedly heard the voices of modern virtual assistants. I propose to combine the sound with the image. If you are impressionable and do not want to destroy the idyllic picture of the world, here it is worth finishing reading.

    Siri




    This beautiful virtual woman is known to all apple-growers on the planet. She has been living with us since 2005. Yes, yes, it was then for the first time Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) - a cloud-based virtual assistant found its original voice. In the first version of Siri for American users, in her image, the actress for voice acting Susan Bennett materialized . In 2005, she signed a contract with ScanSoft and four hours a day for a month uttering incoherent phrases to the recorder. Starting with iOS 7 , Siri for American users spoke in a different voice. By the way, Apple has many times denied contact with this beautiful lady. Whose voice speaks Russian Siri for me personally is still a mystery.

    Cortana




    Microsoft's equally charming virtual assistant is Cortana. Her female image belongs to the American actress Jen Taylor. By the way, she lives near the Parallels office in Seattle. I must say that by the age of 44, she does not have a very big filmography and only a few roles in theatrical productions. However, she has been very successful in the gaming industry. Jane is widely known to fans of the game Halo, as the performer of the role of the original Cortana - artificial intelligence helping the player throughout the game. She also dubbed Zoey in Left 4 Dead, Princess Peach, Tod and Todetta in various Mario games, Dota 2 characters - Lina, Windranger, Puck and Jellyfish.

    Yandex Navigator




    The voice accompanying millions of Central Asian taxi drivers across the country belongs to the beautiful Oksana Mandryka. It is she who patiently listens to all kinds of things: “Wei, Krasavisa, how to go and Praspext World” and so on. It is she who grants sacred knowledge of the short route to everyone, from the driver of the murdered Shah to the respectable Bentley. It is noteworthy that, unlike the above-mentioned heroines, Oksana was not a professional actress. For many years she worked in the Ukrainian office of Yandex as a marketing manager. Oksana passed an internal castingcompany in 2014 and recorded all the audio tracks for the navigator. Unfortunately, according to a number of media reports, not so long ago she left the company and moved to Germany for permanent residence. But in spite of everything, Oksana will forever remain in the hearts and navigators of millions of motorists of our country.

    GPS




    The voice of a true Australian beauty is the overseas navigation system. It was the Australian singer, broadcaster, vocal teacher and just beautiful, Karen Jacobson, fifteen years ago, voiced everything that accompanies us to this day on trips. By the way, she is the Australian Siri. In 2015, Karen was elected President of the National Broadcasters Association in New York. Jacobson has published two books, “Recount - Driving Route” and “Road Map: A GPS Navigation Girl for Your Future.” In a word, a talented person is talented in everything.

    Alexa




    This beauty materialized in early 2017 and immediately enriched her Amazon founding father Jeff Bezos. In January, after the presentation of the Alexa project at an exhibition in Las Vegas, the company's capitalization grew by $ 4 billion. Sources claim that his prototype was the voice of a virtual assistant from the movie Star Trek. Others associate the name Alexa with the Library of Alexandria, which served as a source of knowledge for ancient civilizations. Surprisingly, if you ask Alexawhose voice she speaks, she answers that with her own. The developers claim that their brainchild sounds 100% synthesized speech. Is it so? May be. In the meantime, catch the prototype from Star Trek in the face of Majel Barret-Roddenberry. By the way, she also inspired the founders of Google to develop a voice assistant Majel for android developers.

    SHE




    Concluding the topic of female images in virtual reality, I would like to draw your attention to the voice of their film "She." The film “She,” starring Joaquin Phoenix, tells from a novel between a writer and an operating system. Samantha, an obedient electronic girl, indulges all the wishes of her lover, but another reason why the main character is fascinated by her. I won’t spoil further, I’ll just say that the voice of the virtual assistant belongs to the beauty Scarlet Johanson.



    In the finale, I would like to touch on the subject of objectification of images, systems and objects in passing. Have you noticed that after some time you begin to form your personal attitude to something? Favorite phone, hated sistemnik, ugly tablet, etc. And these stories, when people start talking with a TV or a car? Classic! In this sense, virtual assistants are not deprived of attention either. Surprisingly, researchers argue that flirting is one of the reasons why users initially seek the help of a virtual assistant. It is clear that to a certain extent this looks strange and blows deviations, but the fact remains. For example, in 2010, an article by writer Bruce Feiler was published in the New York Times. He stated that he was in love with GPS: “She gives me what I want and does not ask for anything in return. I just have to turn it on from time to time, and that makes her happy. Our relationship only revolves around me. ”



    In general, the topic of sexual harassment of virtual assistants seems to be very acute . At the beginning of 2016, Deborah Harrison, one of the editors of the replicas of the Cortana program, reported that the program contained “irritation” for aggressive, racist and sexist requests. According to Harrison, “such behavior will not be promoted by the company,” in the end, the virtual “woman” of the 21st century must be able to fend for itself. In a word, “Freedom to Angela Davis!” And with a holiday, our dear ladies!


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