★ 語音助理有性別框架嗎？ Are Female Chatbots a Sign of Sexism in the Tech Industry?

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文章主講 Wesley

Anyone who comes into contact with artificially intelligent voices on a regular basis may notice a curious phenomenon. Such voices are characterized as female more often than not. Think about it; Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple—three of the world’s largest tech companies—have given female voices to their Alexa, Cortana, and Siri chatbots, __1__.

There may be more than one reason for this. Although people around the world are increasingly challenging so-called gender norms , it is also the case that traditionally, __2__ assistance roles, such as the role of secretary, have been usually filled by women. Therefore, given that these chatbots are designed to mimic such roles, many consumers may feel more comfortable hearing a female voice when __3__ help.

However, the normalization of female chatbot voices poses a problem. Research has shown that men compose the vast majority of the technological workforce . If the people teaching robots how to provide aid for consumers are mostly men, the products these people design are likely to __4__ a more traditional male view of both the tech industry and society.

Fortunately, several tech companies are now starting to reject old-fashioned gender norms. One example is Sage Group, a UK-based financial services enterprise. A few years ago, the group developed and introduced Pegg, a gender-neutral chatbot designed to help customers keep their finances __5__. If other tech companies follow suit , we may see more gender-neutral chatbots in the not-too-distant future.

 

 

延伸學習｜介紹 characterize 的其他用法及衍生字

characterize [ ˈkærɪktəˌraɪz ] vt. 描繪；描述⋯⋯的特性（常用被動）

• be characterized by...　　具有⋯⋯的特色／特徵
• character [ `ˈkærɪktɚ ] n. 個性，性格
• characteristic [ ˌkærəktəˈrɪstɪk ] n. 特性，特徵 & a. 特有的，典型的
  be characteristic of...　　是⋯⋯的特色／特有的
• characterization [ ˌkærɪktərəˈzeʃən ] n. 刻劃，描繪

 

★中文翻譯僅供參考，請勿逐字逐句對照

任何經常接觸人工智慧語音的人可能都會注意到一個奇怪的現象。這些聲音多半被描繪成女性。想想看：Amazon、微軟和 Apple — 這世界級的三大科技公司 — 都分別給了他們的聊天機器人 Alexa、Cortana 和 Siri 女性的聲音。

這種情況的理由可能不只一個。雖然現在世界各地的人都愈來愈會挑戰所謂的性別規範，但傳統上，專業助理角色（像是祕書職位）通常也都是由女性擔任。因此，有鑑於這些聊天機器人是被設計來模仿這樣的角色，許多消費者在尋求協助時，聽到女性的聲音可能會感覺比較自在。

然而，將女聲聊天機器人變成常態會造成一個問題。研究顯示男性占了科技從業人員的絕大多數。如果教導機器人如何協助消費者的人大部分是男性，那麼這些人所設計出來的產品便可能會反映出科技業和社會中較傳統的男性視角。

幸好現在有幾家科技公司都開始拒絕舊時性別規範了。總部設於英國的財務服務公司 Sage 集團即是一例。數年前，該集團研發並推出了中性聊天機器人 Pegg，它是特別為幫助客戶理財而設計的。如果其他科技公司也跟進，我們或許在不久的將來就能看見更多的中性聊天機器人。

Ans: 1. C 2.A 3.C 4.D 5.B

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