Tech firms have an obsession with "female" digital servants, and this needs to change ZDNet

Microsoft's Cortana takes its name from an AI character in the Halo video game series. These technologies all have one thing in common - they are digital servants aimed at a mass-market audience that feature a "female" voice or persona. Am I the only one that thinks that this more than a little creepy? No doubt you've also noticed that I've been putting the word "female" inside quotes, and that's very deliberate on my part. Despite how these technology solutions are packages to look, sound, or in the case of Tay and Xiaoice, behave, these digital characters are not female.