Alexa, Alex, or Al?

Our tech world is fraught with troubling trends when it comes to gender inequality. A recent UN report "I'd blush if I could" warns that embodied AIs like the primarily female voice assistants can actually reinforce harmful gender stereotypes. Dag Kittlaus, who co-founded Siri before its acquisition by Apple, spoke out on Twitter against the accusation on Siri's sexism: It is important to acknowledge that the gender of Siri, unlike that of other voice assistants, was configurable early on. But the product's position becomes harder to define when you notice that Siri's response to the highly inappropriate comment "You're a slut" is in fact the title of the UN report: "I'd blush if I could." Therefore, in this article I'd like to discuss the social and cultural aspects of voice assistants, and specifically, why they are designed with gender, what ethical concerns this causes, and how we can fix this issue.