As new technologies take on increasingly humanlike
qualities, there’s been a push to make them genderless. Apple’s
Siri digital assistant unveiled a gender-neutral option last year,
and when asked about their gender identities, the AI chatbots
ChatGPT and Google Bard each reply, “I do not have a gender.”
There have been concerns over gendering technology,
since doing so reinforces societal stereotypes. That happens
because the stereotypes commonly associated with men, such as
competitiveness and dominance, are more valued than those
associated with women. That is likely true, says Ashley Martin, a
professor at Stanford University. “People are stereotyping their
gendered objects in very traditional ways,” she says.
Removing gender from the picture altogether seems like a
simple way to fix this. Yet, as Martin has found in her latest
research, conducted with Malia Mason, of Columbia Universty,
gender is one of the fundamental ways people form connections
with objects, particularly those designed to evoke human
characteristics.
Throughout the experiments, Martin and Mason found
that gender increased users’ feelings of attachment to devices
such as digital voice assistants –– and their interest in purchasing
them. For example, participants said they would be less likely to
buy a genderless voice assistant than versions with male or
female voices.
Hope Reese. Is That Self-Driving Car a Boy or a Girl?
In: Insights by Stanford Business.
Internet:<http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/> (adapted)