Oh sorry, I’m looking for Sori. Or more to the point, why are the popular digital assistants feminized? I have LG’s Voice Mate on hand, and it’s definitely female. If there’s a way to make it sound male, I haven’t figured it out yet. I asked it “How do I change your voice?” this afternoon, and it counter-asked me, “Uh, do you want to sing a duet?” Erm yes, that’s possibly the only reason why I’d want to change your pitch dear Voice Mate. I didn’t really question this lack of choice until finding out that Windows 10’s version of a digital assistant, known as “Cortana”, will very much be female too. Looking for Sori comes with a whole slew of gender-biased questions, such as, “Why sexualize your digital assistant?” Yet we all iconically know Apple’s Siri as being a “she” (Big Bang Theory anyone? Raj tried to date Siri,) and “Cortana” has been referenced as “she” in recent Microsoft videos.
If you are comfortable with a “she” digital assistant, cool! Go you. Personally, if I could have my pick from a group of digital assistants that can’t sue me for sexism, I’d rather choose an assistant that is more “he”. I think. Maybe. I actually don’t know, ’cause I don’t have the choice; but I agree much with @BrazenWoman sentiment:
And I do vaguely remember there being a discussion of Siri going for a deeper, more male, pitch… did it happen? This non-Apple techie would love to know!
In the meantime, could the digital Assistant market please catch up and put JARVIS inside my phone, and tablet and desktop… and my fridge? I would love my alarm clock to be an easy, “It’s now 7am, Aeryn, time to wake up and enjoy this snow day,” instead of the blaring noise akin to a fire alarm.
I guess the bottom line is, I want to be more like pre-Age of Ultron Tony Stark and have a British butler at hand.
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LOL!! What a great idea! I always wondered why Siri was a girl! I love the idea of a hot British male telling me what to do!!
What a fun idea! I've never really thought about it to be honest. I don't think of Siri as a female I just think of her as a robot. My gps has a variety of voices you can pick from!
If you switch siri's language to uk English it suddenly is a male. I don't kno why but it happens any time I have to do an upgrade. I wan Canadian English so I always end up back with a female voice. But the English chap is not that appealing
This made me LOL I totally hear you! My husband just upgraded his phone and is in love with how intuitive it is (not iPhone) so I've nicknamed his phone warm fuzzies but refer to it as a male :)
How funny! They are always girls!
I've never looked at it that way. I've always taken it as we females are the more superior race so why not be the ones who are filled with all of the answers. I think that there should be an option on phones.. male or female voice. Let us choose who we would like to assist us.