Here& #39;s @revanhoe and @adanielescu talking about Gender Inclusive Conversational AIs. (And parallels to other Biases)

This sounds like it will be a complicated and nuanced, yet important, topic.
(I can& #39;t keep up - I& #39;m sorry!)

We have evidence of gender bias:
- Devices work better for men
- Personalities display gender stereotypes
- Harmful behavior
"[A]t least 5% of interactions [with chatbots] were unambiguously sexually explicit."

When interactions were flirtatious or worse - the chatbots often encourage this.
So why is it harmful that our chatbots are female presenting?

Because they reinforce the stereotype of "barking orders at women".
But we don& #39;t need to gender our things.

We have an opportunity to do better...

(cue @adanielescu)
Most people associate a gender with the device based on the voice they hear. But a non-binary voice is sometimes heard as "strange".

There isn& #39;t a straightforward solution. But this is part of it.
Gendering voice is more than just pitch, it is also intonation, word choice, etc.
Notion of differing word choices is *very* interesting to me. I& #39;m wondering how much we should be varying based on the context of the person asking... or if there is a more neutral way to create replies. But sounds like not yet. (Can& #39;t find a handle for Sharone, if they have one)
Big takeaways:
- Be deliberate in our thinking about gender and voice agents
- Be active in discouraging sexual harassment
- Be inclusive to capture everyone& #39;s needs and represent them
I know I thought long and hard about which voice to use when working on @VodoDrive. I initially went with a male-sounding voice, since I didn& #39;t want a stereotypical image of a boss yelling at a secretary for numbers, but have elaborate plans to make that highly tailorable.
You can follow @afirstenberg.
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