McBlondeLand
Church of Jeff
ⰎⰅ ⰀⰍⰨⰒⰎⰫ@jeffowski what drugs do you have to be on to come up with an opinion that ludicrous?
Nicolas Le Gland@genmaicha The red pill.
PalmAndNeedle@jeffowski The algorithms also understand men better than women, white better than POC, unaccented english better than accents... It's a whole new world of discrimination, yay /s
Ashnee HS@jeffowski "staff" and not "stuff"?
Crowjane@jeffowski
Your wife is wise.
Your wife is wise.
Michael Porter@jeffowski @CStamp I change all my voices to the Australian Male one. That way it sounds like my buddy Bruce has popped over to help me.
(I was very disappointed that I couldn’t change the command from “Hey, Siri” to “Oi! Bruce!”)
tom4okstate@jeffowski this is possibly true, but I also think that Hal from 2001 A Space. Odyssey ruined an entire generation on the idea of a soothing male voice coming from a computer. 😂
Elise Veltman - van ReekumThis is an undervalued reaction!
Which is also as funny as it is plausible. 👏
OldeHippi 🦋🎨🙏🌺And TV ads tend to objectify women more than men. Underwear ads, lots of faceless body parts to advertise clothing, it's disgusting.
Astrid Sawatzky
Brooke Binkowski@jeffowski Women everywhere already knew shitty men regard us as the help.
Hollie@jeffowski I change my Siri voice to be a British man, and it's truly WEIRD how many people have commented on that when it comes on, not in a "oh neat, you changed the voice," kind of way, but like...."why is that a GUY?" Like it bugs them!
girlfreddyBack in the 80's all the voices in cars reminding you to put your seatbelts on were female as well. More than once you'd hear some dude compare it to his wife nagging him.
This trope is not new.
xs4me2Good observation....
Julie WebgirlAnd then there was back in the day "ask Jeeves" which is treating it as a servant.
I propose we name our digital peon assistants names like Elon, Jeff, Mark.
Hey Elon, do this. Hey Jeff, do that. Hey Mark, do this!
Karl@jeffowski I imagine if they were all men by default, there’s be another post complaining about that. Also, the British Siri is male by default.
david@jeffowski meanwhile, (to make an ambit claim) all the meditation and sleep apps have a default male voice.
Catherine Schmidt@jeffowski don’t know if it is still true, but voiced automated warnings on aircraft are women because pilots, mostly men, will hear it and react. As to whether they listen? That is another story..😹
sheislaurence@jeffowski I can't believe most of the comments, saying 'it wasn't intentional'. Sofware names are very carefully chosen. Product managers haven't intentionally used a female name in a derogatory way, they (and we know for a fact THEY were men) had the #unconsciousbias that an assistant should be a woman, and that bias is born from, hum... what is that called again in the #Barbie movie.... ah yeah, #patriarchy. If you don't believe our current society is patriarchal, go back to Barbie.
pikalaxalt@jeffowski The iconic voices of the T and the New York MTA, all baritones with charismatic command, are slowly being replaced by Sharon from reception.
Tanatoes@jeffowski @GottaLaff this is why I use the voice of an Australian gentleman for Siri.
SleightWryder@jeffowski AND THIS IS WHY I REFUSE TO INSTALL THEM.
A woman is a partner to a man, not a GODDAMED SERVANT! FUCK!!!
Supportive Tree-based lifeform@jeffowski I gave my roomba "british man voice" to ensure we only see the brits as servants. As it should be.
Veebs
Adams Immersive@jeffowski These seemingly subtle things matter! What's cool is that Siri isn't like that: there IS no default (as of a couple years ago) and the choices at setup include male, female, and nonbinary voice talent (and of differing racial backgrounds)—but they are not identified as anything but numbers: Siri 1 etc. (Before that, some countries like the US defaulted to female Siri, and others to male.)
Ratboy (reformed dino pirate)@jeffowski I've been thinking of this recently as well. Common in lots of things outside of virtual assistants too. Navigation for example.
A Jelly Squishes Slowly By@jeffowski Exciting to see that posts about misogyny showing you who to block translates across platforms.
@ubiquisquish -- I study ancient Greek atheist philosophy and the philosophic masters gathered to work out what characteristics, morals, ethics, etc created the best example of a Greek citizen.
They determined that makes a "good citizen" is what they DO. It doesn't matter what their thoughts are or their wishes or their ideas. The only thing that matters is the PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION of actions in real life. People are as they do, not as they think. I think about that a lot while seeing comments
They determined that makes a "good citizen" is what they DO. It doesn't matter what their thoughts are or their wishes or their ideas. The only thing that matters is the PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION of actions in real life. People are as they do, not as they think. I think about that a lot while seeing comments
John Bates@jeffowski I changed all@of my various devices to different voices and accents — each one has its own.
That way I can pretend to have a multinational army of minions who will do my bidding, albeit in a bumbling and annoying kind of way.
That way I can pretend to have a multinational army of minions who will do my bidding, albeit in a bumbling and annoying kind of way.
anitavondannen@jeffowski There are a lot of female users. Why don’t they change their Siri to a male voice. I did and my Brit male Siri is much more polite, informative, detailed and entertaining. Just f choose.
NoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️🌈I thought about it a lot when ‘2001’ was a new movie & the only woman in it was a receptionist.
Llafgorf@NoctisEqui @jeffowski Don't forget the Pan-Am "space hostess" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iiXUeil5fQ
2001: A Space Odyssey - The lady who walks on the ceiling
Sibshops@jeffowski The only AI assistant that I know of that has a masculine voice is Spotify.
Benjamin@jeffowski my Siri sounds like a guy with a wonky southern drawl 🤠
Eric Gilmour@jeffowski @jace I've got my google home set to a male voice and it always catches people off guard
Byron Gary@jeffowski It's fascinating isn't it?
Applegrove@jeffowski When David Letterman had an affair and it became public, he still had his show. I was explaining how he had done a bad thing to his family. That when he drove into work in his car, Siri would not talk to him. LOL!
Court Cantrell does not comply@jeffowski Well, fuck. ☹️
StarkRG@jeffowski In pretty sure Samsung's is male by default. Really, though, female voices are chosen because people find them to be more soothing, lulling them into allowing corporations to spy on them at every moment.
jivingrealist
bill gyatts@jeffowski @Elizafox or male british
EngelMichelman🐸 Antifaschist@jeffowski It was always like this, as far as I can think back. Formally in thr TV. Nonspeaking female assistence or a bodyless female voice in the show. 🤷🏻♂️
Does anyone remember?
Does anyone remember?
@jeffowski This is just good use of science. They're perceived as less threatening and the higher frequencies simply cut through sound floor level noise.
Survey after survey (including asking anyone who was ever a child) show that people respond better to female voices. (I could quote some, but nobody on the internet has ever changed their mind from a link from more authority sources. :-/)
I don't think it's about mind-control, but about telling you things you can hear and will think are true.
J$@jeffowski Sir, Alex… yet Bing is obv a dog, and Google an eldritch horror of noneuclidean dimensions.
Christine Malec@jeffowski I don't think of it that way. I think we're training a whole generation to think of women as experts.
reinoud kaasschieter"Because the speech of most voice assistants is female, it sends a signal that women are... docile helpers, available at the touch of a button or with a blunt voice command like 'hey' or 'OK'. The assistant holds no power of agency beyond what the commander asks of it. It honours commands and responds to queries regardless of their tone or hostility."
Source: https://www.themodems.com/tech/why-do-ai-assistants-almost-always-have-female-voices
ForeignSubstance ✅@jeffowski "Staff" (and especially exceptionally smart staff), really run the show, however. 😂
Strandcafe@jeffowski even worse, some time ago thy answered inapropiatly to sexual harrassment/ mysogyn comments in a stereotypical devoting way. ( like calling it bitch: thank you, i am aroused )
Also studies show that human prefer to listen to the other sex voice. which basicly means the developers burn their sexism and preferences into voice Assistent systems, and also they are less well suited for woman and girls.
Also studies show that human prefer to listen to the other sex voice. which basicly means the developers burn their sexism and preferences into voice Assistent systems, and also they are less well suited for woman and girls.
itzikigaiDiotenez, egin dituzten ikerketengatik, jendeak emakumeen ahotsa atseginagoa, ulergarriagoa eta lagungarriagoa dela uste dute. Nork daki.
Moskuko metroan adibidez erdigunera hurbiltzen bazara gizonaren ahotsa entzuten da, baina kanpoaldera joaten bazara emakumearen ahotsa. Errusiako lagun batek esan zidan zentroa lana delako (gizona lana) eta kanpoaldea etxea delako (emakumea etxea).
Txopi 🇵🇸@itzikigai_ @jeffowski nik matxismoaren trazuak ikusten ditut. Harreragileak, erizainak eta idazkariak emakumeak. Atseginak dira, bai, baita esanekoak eta otzanak. Zu zara agintzen duena eta beraiek lagundu egiten zaituzte, zure aginduak eta galderak pazientziarekin erantzuten dituzte.
Gizonak berriz ez daude zu laguntzeko. Arduradunak dira, medikuak, zuzendariak, agindu emaileak.
Horregatik Mycroft-en ahotsarekin egin dutena interesgarria da:
https://mycroft.eus/
@txopi @jeffowski Iaz irakurri nuen ahots neutroak eta generorik gabekoak prestatzen ari zirela. Erabiltzaileak hainbat ahotsen artean nahi duena aukeratzea beste proposamena zan, baina ez dakit nola dagoen hori guztia. Ez ditut inoiz erabiltzen Siri, Alexia, etab.
ComtesseDeChampignac@jeffowski that is, sadly, a very good point she made. That said, I once spent three days trying to make my gps speak like Darth Vader😁
Lunya 
@jeffowski huh I never thought of it like that
The Iron Donkey@jeffowski And here I thought they made them with female voices so guys would buy them for the sexy voice *grins*
Gord@jeffowski I’ve always at Siri to be a man for this very reason.
Indigo Haze@jeffowski @Elizafox I think this may be an extension of older SciFi that's done us wrong. We got used to a feminine voice for different computer interfaces and usually when it was a nasc voice the computer went off the rails and became a/the villain. More recent SciFi taking queues from what worked in the past reinforcing it....
Holly of course being the one exception I can think of.... but he was female... I just realize that Holly is a trans character representation in media... holy shit.
JJ@jeffowski @paul Actually it comes from research done into the efficacy of voice warning systems for aviation where it was found that women's voices were found to “have an advantage because they could portray a greater rage of urgencies due to their generally higher pitch range”. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_warning_system#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20they%20recommended%20the%20choice,higher%20pitch%20and%20pitch%20range.
Marko Karppinen@jeffowski @Matti_Vuori the Siri default voice has been randomized since iOS 14.5. It's also labeled like “Voice 1", “Voice 2”—not by gender—and the ordering is random on each device.
Mx. Aria Stewart@jeffowski I think about this a lot.
Now there's a nonbinary Siri voice.
Just like ... my ... favorite ... cafes.
Literally the voice of 'service staff'.