{"id":735,"date":"2025-04-02T10:50:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/?p=735"},"modified":"2025-04-02T10:50:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:50:03","slug":"why-tech-giants-give-ai-a-female-voice-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/why-tech-giants-give-ai-a-female-voice-exposed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tech Giants Give AI a Female Voice &mdash; Exposed!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Most of us use virtual assistants in iPhones, GPS navigators, and other talking stuff almost every day. We ask what the weather will be like, what time it is, what\u2019s 4\u00d74, driving directions, and so on. But we never ask ourselves why the vast majority of the responses we get are spoken in a female voice.\n\n\n\n</p><p>Some scientists argue that finding a female voice that everyone likes is much easier than modulating a male one. It is associated with the mother\u2019s voice, so most people tend to respond positively to it.\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-1-1024x649.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67399\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<p>The predecessors of virtual assistants, like dispatchers and secretaries, were mostly women. Back in the 40s, American air force pilots \u201caffectionately\u201d called the aircraft warning system \u201cBitching Betty\u201d for the peculiar intonation of a mechanized voice. By the end of the 20th century, when voice systems moved from aircraft to cars, manufacturers started getting complaints about the built-in GPS navigator speaking in a female voice. They did not want to \u201clisten to a woman,\u201d telling them what to do. Also, those complaints came from angry men, obviously.\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-2-1024x576.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67400\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<p>Automatic voice alarm systems and talking robots are all designed and created by humans, which means that their inclinations, social prejudices went straight into the development process. Psychologically speaking, a person is just more prone to female voices. A study published in 2014 says that at the prenatal stage, the fetus responds to the voices of both parents, and the newborn already prefers the mother\u2019s voice rather than the father\u2019s. Another study conducted in 2010, discovered that men most often prefer hearing a female voice even though they don\u2019t like to admit it. Women, on the other hand, well, they also prefer a female voice, so it\u2019s a win-win!\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-3-1024x577.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67401\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<p>Today we hear automatic voices everywhere, from our earbuds and laptops to our homes and even smart-fridges. Basically, if it has a speaker, there\u2019s a way to make it talk in a gentle, soothing female voice.\n\n\n\n</p><p>Take Karen Jacobsen, for example. She\u2019s famous for lending her beautiful voice of \u201cAustralian Karen.\u201d She even has her personal website and a Wiki page.\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-4-Karen-Jacobsen-1024x685.png%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67402\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<p>Carolyn Hopkins\u2019s voice notifies passengers at train stations and New York Airport. What would people do without her directions?\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-5-Carolyn-Hopkins.jpg%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67403\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<p>Those of you who own a Windows device, have probably heard of Cortana. I\u2019ve personally never needed her assistance, but it\u2019s good to know we can rely on her. Oh, and she speaks in the voice of Jen Taylor.\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-6-Jen-Taylor-1024x576.png%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67404\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<p>Susan Bennett is arguably the most famous voice in the world. Yup, that\u2019s SIRI \u2013 your virtual assistant, developed by Apple. Every day, she helps millions of iPhone and iPad owners find the nearest grocery store.\n\n\n\n<figure class='\"wp-block-image\"'><img decoding='\"async\"' src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/img-cdn.brainberries.co%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2020%5C/05%5C/why-are-all-virtual-assistants-using-female-voices-7-Susan-Bennett-1024x576.png%5C%22" alt='\"\"' class='\"wp-image-67405\"\/'>\n\n\n\n<p>Engineers have modulated a plethora of male, female, and even gender-neutral voices for all sorts of devices and online services, but seems like nothing will beat a real person talking. Or at least not yet. A few more massive lockdowns like this and the society will start to crumble, looking for someone to talk to. And the AI will always be thee to listen to our nagging.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"</p><p>Most of us use virtual assistants in iPhones, GPS navigators, and other talking stuff almost every day. We ask what the weather will be like, what time it is, what\u2019s 4\u00d74, driving directions, and so on. But we never ask ourselves why the vast majority of the responses we get are spoken in a female [&hellip;]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbdigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></figure></p></figure></p></figure></p></figure></p></figure></p></figure></p></figure></p>