Is Siri Sexist? The United Nations Seems to Think So

Posted by Dennis D. Bednarz on May 23, 2019 in Apple News

If you’ve owned any smartphone from the past 5 years, you know exactly that thing is when you press the home button for too long. Love it or hate it, the United Nation’s certainly falls in the second category.

The United Nations has raised a report dubbed “I’d blush if I could”, a reference to Siri’s answer when she’s exposed to comments or insults of sexual nature.

The report outlines how digital assistants nowadays are all female and how they’re feminised. Siri, as well as Alexa are both female names with female voices by default. Cortana is a fictional character from the Halo game series, however, the character is also female.

The United Nations are arguing that feminisation of digital assistants is harmful to our society. Assistants are programmed to always be polite, willing and serving, which is where the United Nation’s point lies.

“Siri’s submissiveness in the face of gender abuse – and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women – provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products,”

Noted a study by the United Nations. This issue expands well beyond just Apple, though. Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana have both been struck with criticism regarding their feminisation of their voice assistants.

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