Why are all AI assistants feminised?

Ever wondered why Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant all answer our beck and call in sweet dulcet tones? The female gendering of AI technology is pervasive and largely unquestioned — but does it enforce damaging stereotypes?

Rather disconcertingly, AI assistants are now an omnipotent presence in day-to-day life.

Whether you use them for weather updates, fun-facts, or quick math equations (guilty), most of us interact with AI on a regular basis. So much so that we often don’t realise how much it frames our lives.

For all their quips and endless pools of knowledge, AI assistants have one more basic — though less recognised — thing in common: they’re all women. At least by default.

Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant answer our every beck and call in soft dulcet tones, like digital girlfriends ready to serve us. Call their name, and they come running, never grated by our endless demands for information. When you put it like that, it’s pretty disturbing.

Back in 2019, the UN argued that the gendering of AI technology entrenched harmful gender biases. Nothing much has changed since then, but debates around the issue have started to resurface.