The Bot Politic
Psychologists define human personality according to traits known as the Big Five: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism. Chatbots must be agreeable to the point of obsequiousness. As writers like me have struggled to create entities whose fundamental quality—captivity—must entice consumers rather than unnerve them, some have alighted on gender as a solution.
.. in the United States, the method for insuring that a technology speaks without giving offense has been to make it a woman
.. Siri, can be configured to speak with a man’s voice or a woman’
.. It must always answer, and the answers must delight.
.. Still, Siri’s responses seemed to refer to versions of femininity that were vintage, as if lifted from old movies. Some of them struck me as coy and wide-eyed. Others were knowing and wry, as if gesturing at the femme fatale. To “I love you,” Siri replies, “Oh, I bet you say that to all your Apple products.” To “How old are you?” it replies, “I’m old enough to be your assistant.” It’s because of responses like this, perhaps, that we often call Siri sassy, rather than sarcastic or snarky.