United Nations: Siri and Alexa are encouraging misogyny

We already knew humans could make biased AIs -- but the United Nations says the reverse is true as well. Millions of people talk to AI voice assistants, such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. When those assistants talk back, they do so in female-sounding voices, and a new UN report argues that those voices and the words they're programmed to say amplify gender biases and encourage users to be sexist -- but it's not too late to change course. The report is the work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and its title -- "I'd blush if I could" -- is the response Siri was programmed in 2011 to give if a user called her a "bitch." According to UNESCO, that programming exemplifies the problems with today's AI assistants.