Digital Smarts - Is There Gender Bias in the Voices of Digital Assistants?

You are here

Error message

  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$bin is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->__construct() (line 30 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$wildcard_flushes is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 637 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$invalidate is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 638 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_lifetime is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 639 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_flush is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 640 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_content_flush is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 641 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$cache_temporary_flush is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 642 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).
  • Deprecated function: Creation of dynamic property MemCacheDrupal::$flushed is deprecated in MemCacheDrupal->reloadVariables() (line 643 of /var/www/html/docroot/sites/all/modules/contrib/memcache/memcache.inc).

Neowin reports the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is voicing concerns about the widespread practice of making the voices of digital assistants female, which it says reinforces gender bias. UNESCO is urging corporations and governments to consider a gender-neutral persona for digital assistants and to make software development teams more evenly balanced between genders.