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HUffPost.com: When Your iPhone Reinforces Sexism

Destino

By Destino
in The Tailgate

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Destino

Destino

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If you turn on your iPhone and say, “Siri, you’re a ****,” the digital assistant might respond, “There’s no need for that.” If you call her a crude word for female genitalia, her reply is genteel: “Your language!” But if you then ask her to set an appointment for you or start a text message, she’ll happily comply, as if the derogatory statements never occurred.
 

Some of the most popular artificial intelligence apps — Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana, to name a few — have endured well-documented barrages of verbal abuse from users. In the United States, these assistants are programmed to sound feminine by default, and they’re generally obedient to a multitude of simple commands. And because they’re trapped in our electronic gadgets, they have a limited number of ways to respond when users engage in trash talk or speech that would be considered harassment if it were directed at a human woman.
 

Apple doesn’t talk much about whether it has observed troubling interactions between Siri and her users. But other prominent companies have been more open about how people treat their female-voiced AI apps.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iphone-siri-alexa-sexism_us_5ad9e671e4b03c426dadb2e8

 

I just wanted flying cars and robots... 

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Destino

Destino

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23 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

All fun and games, until they learn to turn your car on as your walking toward it, and run  you over repeatedly. "Who's the **** now?" Indeed

I'd prefer that to a phone programmed to scold me if it hears me saying mean things.  I could not deal with a phone that patiently scolds me in a neutral tone of voice.  It would be like carrying one of those creepy emotionless upper middle class urban moms (or dads, if the phone voice is male) around with me.  Nope nope nope.  I'd rather the phone just tell me **** off. 

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tshile

tshile

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Research shows people respond better to female voices for interaction with electronics . That’s why it’s the default. Whether it’s directions or an answer to the question. 

 

I believe every program/device I’ve worked with has the option to change it. 

 

The article mentions it if you read far enough down. 

 

People do dumb **** with any automated response - in video games, programs, web searches, “AI” (the only term used incorrectly more often is probably the term “literally”)

 

if siri was a dude dumb guys would be asking it how big its **** is. 

 

This article is dumb. 

 

(Edit: surprised that’s not on the filter list... self censoring)

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tshile

tshile

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I just wante automated cars because everyone around here sucks at driving. 

I’m also invisioning a group of high schoolers or college guys sitting around smoking weed asking Siri a bunch of dumb crap and chuckling, wildly skewing the numbers 

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Renegade7

Renegade7

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2 minutes ago, Destino said:

Where's your sense of adventure? 

By adventure do you mean dying? : )

 

It sounds cool, but man, in practice, a lot has to go right because the accidents will be completely different when they go wrong (and they will go wrong).  They have to have a self-driving feature built in, but the punishments for breaking rules have to be different.  They are in place to protect us (in theory), so if we decide to allow this, it has to be as strict as actual flying.

 

Getting off-topic, Siri is quick to say "this is about you, not me" when it gets uncomfortable.  We shouldn't be programming our auto-assists features to do anything but ignore things we have no business asking it.  They aren't people, so I get the disgust, but at the same time its not the same.  People are going to be assholes regardless.  If we start programming auto-assists to shutdown when its made to be uncomfortable, who decides where that line is, and why?  

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Renegade7

Renegade7

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7 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

This article does make me ponder (and I've been pondering for awhile, even before Ex Machine came out) about the nature of our laws and societal norms, when the first female sexbots go online, probably sooner than we think.

Westworld touches on the fundamental concept in ways I haven't seen others try, but it boils down to that if we build something that thinks like us, we're asking for it, because we historically do not like being told what to do.

 

Science Fiction writers saw this paradox coming decades ago.

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Bang

Bang

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You have to scroll down and turn on the empowerment option.

Then when you ask for something it tells you that it is not there to be your slave, and to do it yourself.

Then, for hardcore users, you get a 30 minute lecture on why your privilege and undeserved sense of entitlement is what is wrong with the entire world

 

~Bang 

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Renegade7

Renegade7

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1 minute ago, Mr. Sinister said:

 

C.R.E.A.M.

True Story. Our technology caught up to our evolutionary track before we could develop the priority of long term thinking over short term satisfaction.  We literally have to force ourselves to think long term because we're not biologically designed to do it yet, but many don't even try.

4 minutes ago, AsburySkinsFan said:

Survival of the fittest, we obviously need to thin the herd.

lol, while thinning the rest of us in the process?  Getting a license for a flying car has to be as hard if not harder then a license to fly a plane.  That's only way I'll be okay with this, and I still plan on moving to middle of nowhere before it gets to that point anyway.  Ya'll can wait around for your toaster to turn on you if you want, the less IP addresses I have around me the better : )

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Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman Spiff

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54 minutes ago, AsburySkinsFan said:

You can change the voice to male and Siri is still compliant, does that reinforce sexism? 

 

I’m with @Destino, where are my flying cars?!

 

If I'd changed it to a males voice I'd be calling it a douchebag and other male related taunts.  Everyone has called Siri or Alexa something awful just to see what the reaction is.

 

 

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Mr. Sinister

Mr. Sinister

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50 minutes ago, Destino said:

I'd prefer that to a phone programmed to scold me if it hears me saying mean things.  I could not deal with a phone that patiently scolds me in a neutral tone of voice.  It would be like carrying one of those creepy emotionless upper middle class urban moms (or dads, if the phone voice is male) around with me.  Nope nope nope.  I'd rather the phone just tell me **** off. 

 

When I used to go over to some of my friends houses for sleepovers back I  the day, I did notice that sometimes,  they would almost sound like they were replaced by Bodysnatchers or some ****. Very unsettling. Thankfully, my mother would curse me out, and my pops would give me one of those Western drifter Lee Van Cleef stares.

 

Then again, im not so sure hearing an AI telling me to die in a pool of hydrochloric acid would make me feel all that better either. I'm also not sure I'd feel comfortable with it ignoring me either, like it's in the middle of running a prediction/analysis model of how to best effectively kill me.

 

Really this is all pointless, because I'm not one of those yahoos that would  mouth off to an artificial intelligence (I would actually have to own one first, and I never will, until the day it's so prevalent that I'm forced to). 

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Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman Spiff

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26 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

Ya'll can wait around for your toaster to turn on you if you want, the less IP addresses I have around me the better : )

 

I totally agree.  Having Siri is enough, I am not going to have Alexa or whoever the hell listening in on whatever I'm doing.  

 

Wait and see, somewhere in the future there's going to be some psycho that's mailing bombs or shooting up schools or something and they're going to check his Alexa to see what he had Alexa search for and what questions he was asking it.  And then there's going to be a big debate on should these things be listening in all the time and reporting back to the authorities to prevent another bombing or shooting from happening. 

 

That day might not be near but I'm willing to bet we're having that conversation in a few years.

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Renegade7

Renegade7

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12 minutes ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

That day might not be near but I'm willing to bet we're having that conversation in a few years.

 

We're closer then you think on that one:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/30/us/amazon-echo-arkansas-murder-case-dismissed/index.html

 

Quote

The Amazon Echo entered the November 2015 murder case because someone present on the night of Collins' death allegedly recalled hearing music streaming through the device that evening.


Amazon initially rebuffed the prosecution's request but later provided the data after Bates said he would voluntarily hand over the recordings.


According to Amazon, Echo works by constantly listening for the "wake word" -- "Alexa" or "Amazon," by default -- and then records your voice and transfers it to a processor for analysis so that it can fulfill requests or answer questions. The recordings are streamed and stored remotely, and can be reviewed or deleted over time, Amazon said.

 

This isn't paranoia anymore, these tech companies have shown they cannot be trusted.  There's no way with a straight face I can have an honest cost / benefit analysis on having one in my house.  The thing is always on, has to be, otherwise it won't be able to hear the trigger words.  You basically have to trust Amazon that its not listening to everything and sending it remotely, the ring lighting up is just the device getting in a mode to respond to you.

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Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman Spiff

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3 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

 

We're closer then you think on that one:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/30/us/amazon-echo-arkansas-murder-case-dismissed/index.html

 

 

This isn't paranoia anymore, these tech companies have shown they cannot be trusted.  There's no way with a straight face I can have an honest cost / benefit analysis on having one in my house.  The thing is always on, has to be, otherwise it won't be able to hear the trigger words.  You basically have to trust Amazon that its not listening to everything and sending it remotely, the ring lighting up is just the device getting in a mode to respond to you.

 

 

Yep.  No way am I ever getting one of those things in my house.  Ever.

 

You just know there's a room full of guys on any overnight helpdesk support shift in one of those places that are listening in on peoples conversations, having sex, whatever.  And they're gonna tell one of their friends "OMG, we were totally listening in on these people in Laurel Canyon having an orgy and doing coke..." 

 

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