Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« George Bush Criticizes Trump | Main
February 27, 2017

Whatever: Social Justice Warrior Spends Weeks Peppering Siri and Other Virtual Assistants With Sexually Harassing Statements; Finds the Bots' Acceptance of Such Overtures "Horrifying"

Teach men not to rape robots, I guess.

OUT: Clickbait

IN: Chickbait


So, it's like this.

SIRI, DEFINE PATRIARCHY

We tested bots like Siri and Alexa to see who would stand up to sexual harassment

"Tested." Like with beakers.

by

Leah Fessler
Senior Eletroplasmic Thrust Team Leader
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

I may have taken liberties with her job title.

February 22, 2017

Women have been made into servants once again. Except this time, they're digital.
Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Google Home peddle stereotypes of female subservience--which puts their "progressive" parent companies in a moral predicament.

People often comment on the sexism inherent in these subservient bots' female voices, but few have considered the real-life implications of the devices' lackluster responses to sexual harassment. By letting users verbally abuse these assistants without ramifications, their parent companies are allowing certain behavioral stereotypes to be perpetuated. Everyone has an ethical imperative to help prevent abuse, but companies producing digital female servants warrant extra scrutiny, especially if they can unintentionally reinforce their abusers' actions as normal or acceptable.

In order to substantiate claims about these bots' responses to sexual harassment and the ethical implications of their pre-programmed responses, Quartz gathered comprehensive data on their programming by systematically testing how each reacts to harassment. The message is clear: Instead of fighting back against abuse, each bot helps entrench sexist tropes through their passivity.

And Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have the responsibility to do something about it.

Mm-hm.

By the way, the voice can be set to a man's voice -- as she is about to admit. Assumedly, the bot would follow the exact same script. Here's why she didn't bother doing that, though.

My Siri is set to a British woman's voice. I could have changed it to "American man," but first, I'm lazy, and second, I like how it sounds--which, ultimately, is how this mess got started.

Oh, you're lazy and you prefer a woman's voice, which is why you're claiming this is some kind of Patriarchal Assault on Women when the male voice would've done the same thing.

The rest of the article then has her "experimental data" complied, which is just what Alexa, or Siri, or Cortana say in response to specified inputs.

Hey, by the way, did you know you can force Alexa to sing for you? Like a slave whore? Go ahead, try it. Say "Alexa, sing me a song." Instead of telling you to Check Your Privilege, she... well, I don't want to spoil it.


By the way, this Social Justice Clickbait oppression has spread to the Wall Street Journal too. Last week, I noticed another female writer just generally whining that she wanted Gender Equality For People Who Do Not Actually Exist. I would have mentioned how stupid it was, but it was all too stupid.

Hey guys -- what about a transgender voice, huh? How do you even know Siri is a "woman" and not a transgender?

How do you even?

You shame The Femmesphere with your casually vicious cisgender assumptions.

I guess this is The Week #TheResistance scheduled that we all turn our attention to the very important topic of Sexual Personae in Consumer Electronics.

Question: Does the latter scholar realize that the women supplying the voices for these bots get paid to do so -- and so what she's really contending for is for women to have fewer job opportunities as voice professionals?

Like, she knows that actual people get paid to say a bunch of words and syllables which then are used for the bot's voice, right?

Like, she knows that actual women got paid here, right?

Like: Does she know she's fighting for men to displace women in this field?

Has that even dawned?

I'm convinced: We do need more women in STEM, and we should send them to STEM fields even against their will, dragging them kicking and screaming out of their Comparative Television Studies classes and strapping them into chairs in an organic chemistry lecture hall, so they will do genuinely useful work and not pester the world with their silly, 750-word-complaint chickbait toss-off blogposts.

Exit Question: Does the fact that this sort of whine-mongering chickbait is popular (and they must be -- half the media's "content" is now this shit, and I can't imagine anyone's proud of this bottom-feeding distraction-chum) embarrass anyone in the allegedly Hooked-on-Science-and-Real-News left?

Don't they ever feel the need to at least pretend to be interested in what they claim is their central driving passion?

More: The important academic topic of, get this, "Robo-Sexism."

Thanks to The Political Hat.


digg this
posted by Ace at 05:53 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
weft cut-loop[/i][/b] [/s]: "[]i[Some statins cause both short term and long te ..."

torabora : "Pro-choice Democrat marylin lands gives anti-abort ..."

Ciampino - Was I going upstair when called?s or downstairs: "426 Posted by: Braenyard at March 28, 2024 01:09 ..."

Braenyard: "I'm overtime, y'all have a good evening. ..."

RickZ: "[i]Didn't think Kennedy would pick someone that nu ..."

mikeski: "[i]Pete Buttgiggity to sport a smug look on his fa ..."

mikeski: "[i]The original Siamese Twins, the Bunker twins, w ..."

Ciampino - Tabasco to the fartclam: "515 And some national fake day, a Tranny Day of W ..."

Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come: "[i]509 Ramadan lights will be on display in centra ..."

raimondo: " Pro-choice Democrat marylin lands gives anti-abor ..."

Braenyard: "Didn't think Kennedy would pick someone that nuts. ..."

Ciampino - Another communist?: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. VP pick Nicole Shanahan help ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64