Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants

Gavin Abercrombie; Amanda Cercas Curry; Mugdha Pandya; Verena Rieser

doi:10.18653/v1/2021.gebnlp-1.4

Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants

Gavin Abercrombie, Amanda Cercas Curry, Mugdha Pandya, Verena Rieser

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

15 Citations (Scopus)

105 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Technology companies have produced varied responses to concerns about the effects of the design of their conversational AI systems. Some have claimed that their voice assistants are in fact not gendered or human-like- despite design features suggesting the contrary. We compare these claims to user perceptions by analysing the pronouns they use when referring to AI assistants. We also examine systems' responses and the extent to which they generate output which is gendered and anthropomorphic. We find that, while some companies appear to be addressing the ethical concerns raised, in some cases, their claims do not seem to hold true. In particular, our results show that system outputs are ambiguous as to the humanness of the systems, and that users tend to personify and gender them as a result.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing
Editors	Marta R. Costa-jussa, Hila Gonen, Christian Hardmeier, Kellie Webster
Publisher	Association for Computational Linguistics
Pages	24-33
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Electronic)	9781954085619
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2021.gebnlp-1.4
Publication status	Published - Aug 2021
Event	3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing 2021 - Virtual, Online, Thailand Duration: 5 Aug 2021 → …

Conference

Conference	3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing 2021
Abbreviated title	GeBNLP 2021
Country/Territory	Thailand
City	Virtual, Online
Period	5/08/21 → …

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Psychology
Gender Studies
Computer Science Applications
Information Systems
Computational Theory and Mathematics

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Abercrombie, G., Cercas Curry, A., Pandya, M., & Rieser, V. (2021). Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants. In M. R. Costa-jussa, H. Gonen, C. Hardmeier, & K. Webster (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing (pp. 24-33). Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2021.gebnlp-1.4

Abercrombie, Gavin ; Cercas Curry, Amanda ; Pandya, Mugdha et al. / Alexa, Google, Siri : What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants. Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing. editor / Marta R. Costa-jussa ; Hila Gonen ; Christian Hardmeier ; Kellie Webster. Association for Computational Linguistics, 2021. pp. 24-33

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title = "Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants",

abstract = "Technology companies have produced varied responses to concerns about the effects of the design of their conversational AI systems. Some have claimed that their voice assistants are in fact not gendered or human-like- despite design features suggesting the contrary. We compare these claims to user perceptions by analysing the pronouns they use when referring to AI assistants. We also examine systems' responses and the extent to which they generate output which is gendered and anthropomorphic. We find that, while some companies appear to be addressing the ethical concerns raised, in some cases, their claims do not seem to hold true. In particular, our results show that system outputs are ambiguous as to the humanness of the systems, and that users tend to personify and gender them as a result. ",

author = "Gavin Abercrombie and {Cercas Curry}, Amanda and Mugdha Pandya and Verena Rieser",

note = "Funding Information: This research received funding from the EPSRC project {\textquoteleft}Designing Conversational Assistants to Reduce Gender Bias{\textquoteright} (EP/T023767/1). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright}2021 Association for Computational Linguistics.; 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing 2021, GeBNLP 2021 ; Conference date: 05-08-2021",

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Abercrombie, G, Cercas Curry, A, Pandya, M & Rieser, V 2021, Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants. in MR Costa-jussa, H Gonen, C Hardmeier & K Webster (eds), Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing. Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 24-33, 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing 2021, Virtual, Online, Thailand, 5/08/21. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2021.gebnlp-1.4

Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants. / Abercrombie, Gavin; Cercas Curry, Amanda; Pandya, Mugdha et al.
Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing. ed. / Marta R. Costa-jussa; Hila Gonen; Christian Hardmeier; Kellie Webster. Association for Computational Linguistics, 2021. p. 24-33.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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AB - Technology companies have produced varied responses to concerns about the effects of the design of their conversational AI systems. Some have claimed that their voice assistants are in fact not gendered or human-like- despite design features suggesting the contrary. We compare these claims to user perceptions by analysing the pronouns they use when referring to AI assistants. We also examine systems' responses and the extent to which they generate output which is gendered and anthropomorphic. We find that, while some companies appear to be addressing the ethical concerns raised, in some cases, their claims do not seem to hold true. In particular, our results show that system outputs are ambiguous as to the humanness of the systems, and that users tend to personify and gender them as a result.

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Abercrombie G, Cercas Curry A, Pandya M, Rieser V. Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants. In Costa-jussa MR, Gonen H, Hardmeier C, Webster K, editors, Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Gender Bias in Natural Language Processing. Association for Computational Linguistics. 2021. p. 24-33 doi: 10.18653/v1/2021.gebnlp-1.4

Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants

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