Dr Charlotte Webb is co-founder of Feminist Internet, a non-profit organisation on a mission to make the internet more equal for women and other marginalised groups through creative, critical practice. She was nominated last year by the Evening Standard as one of the most influential people in technology and science in London and has presented at TedX, Internet Age Media and Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. It's also the title of a recently published report by Unesco, which aims to expose the gender biases coded into technology products and address the global digital skills gender gap. The paper is a timely reminder that the voices of smartphone-activated smart assistants are now so firmly embedded in the cultural imagination that they feature in everything from NGO reports to TV ads and memes. And AI bias has become a mainstream topic: Joy Buolomwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, is on the six o'clock news talking about biased facial-recognition algorithms; the Barbican's AI: More than human exhibition is bringing AI to the masses; and US presidential hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just called out tech companies for their biases in the recent House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on facial-recognition technology.

Technology that can understand regional accents and gender-neutral voice assistants are among the developments expected in the voice technology field in 2020. Products such as Alexa and Siri have faced mounting criticism that the technology behind them disproportionately misunderstands women, ethnic minorities and those with accents not represented in datasets that have historically favoured white and Chinese male voices. In response, a wave of new projects aims to redress the balance and make the growing voice tech industry more inclusive. "Voice tech has failed by not being programmed to respond adequately to abuse," she said. "The example of Siri stating'I'd blush if I could' when told it was a bitch is a well-known example, as is Alexa replying'Well, thanks for the feedback' when told'You're a slut'."

The other day I spent 10 minutes hurling verbal abuse at Siri. Cringing as I spoke, I said into my phone: "Siri, you're ugly." I said, "Siri, you're fat." She replied, "It must be all the chocolate." I felt mortified for both of us.