Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants
This research addresses ethical concerns about gender and anthropomorphism in conversational AI design, which is important for developers and users, but it is incremental as it builds on existing critiques.
The study examined whether claims by tech companies that voice assistants are not gendered or human-like align with user perceptions and system outputs, finding that users often personify and gender assistants despite these claims.
Technology companies have produced varied responses to concerns about the effects of the design of their conversational AI systems. Some have claimed that their voice assistants are in fact not gendered or human-like -- despite design features suggesting the contrary. We compare these claims to user perceptions by analysing the pronouns they use when referring to AI assistants. We also examine systems' responses and the extent to which they generate output which is gendered and anthropomorphic. We find that, while some companies appear to be addressing the ethical concerns raised, in some cases, their claims do not seem to hold true. In particular, our results show that system outputs are ambiguous as to the humanness of the systems, and that users tend to personify and gender them as a result.