The Feminization of Generative AI: Gender Delegation Through Names and Personas

AI voice assistants and chatbots are overwhelmingly given feminine personas – by feminine names, female voices, and caregiving personas. This paper analyzes the gendering of generative AI systems with explicit (voices, names, avatars) and implicit (assigned roles and behaviors) cues. We synthesize historical antecedents (e.g., telephone operators, early programmers) with case studies of dominant AI assistants (Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana) and conversational AIs (Replika, DALL·E, ChatGPT). Based on evidence from industry reports, media reports, and academic studies, we demonstrate that companies frequently justify female assistants by appealing to user preference for a ”warm, trustworthy” voice. On the other hand, feminist scholars and groups warn that female-coded assistants reinforce the stereotype of women as ”submissive and overly accommodating aides.” Table 2 summarizes these competing perspectives. Our interdisciplinary analysis (gender theory, Science and Technology Studies (STS), linguistics, discourse analysis) finds that these design choices have inevitable social consequences, organizing user interaction along gendered lines. Voice-perception studies confirm, for example, that users attribute nurturing qualities to female voices and authority to male voices. This article explores efforts to reverse this bias, including gender-free or adaptive virtual assistants and principles of universal design. We believe that presenting more diverse or nonbinary AI personas and developing teams with more diverse perspectives will be important towards reducing gender bias in AI design. Index Terms: AI personas, anthropomorphism, gender bias, generative AI, voice assistants