The future of AI may be female, but it isn't feminist

Housed in a tall plastic cylinder, Amazon's Alexa is far from physically resembling a woman. Yet when asked about its gender, the system curiously responds it is "female in character." A closer look at recent developments in artificial intelligence shows Alexa is the rule rather than the exception. From Apple's Siri to Hanson Robotics' humanoid robot Sophia, it seems that the future is female indeed -- but not in the way we intended. Artificial intelligence and robotics may intend to free us from many human limitations, but it seems that gender stereotypes are not one of them.