2015 Theses Bachelor's

The Artificially Intelligent Woman: Talking Down to the Female Machine

Goss, Emma Audrey

This thesis traces the genealogy of the female voice in voice-communicative technology and explores the relationship between humans, artificially intelligent technology, and female voices today. Artificial intelligence, by design, has encouraged a relationship between humans and voice-communicative technology that allows the centuries-old perception of women as mentally inferior to prevail in the present day: People are getting fed up with the shortcomings of voice-communicative technology, recognizing that their “smart” phones are not very smart at all. People presume that innovations in artificially intelligent technology are signs of social progress. But I disagree. Rather, as additional voice-communicative technologies populate our world, I argue that the status of the female voice is regressing to a pre-WWII era.