Apple will no longer make Siri’s voice female by default
Apple’s Siri will stop defaulting to a female-sounding voice. The company announced that it is adding two new voices to Siri’s English offerings, and eliminating the default “female voice” selection in the latest beta version of iOS.
This means that when users set up Siri, they will be able to choose a voice and it will no longer default to the voice assistant being female.
Apple currently allows users to pick between a male and female voice as well as six different accents including American, British, Indian and Irish, but defaults to a female voice for US devices.
“We’re excited to introduce two new Siri voices for English speakers and the option for Siri users to select the voice they want when they set up their device,” Apple said in a statement. “This is a continuation of Apple’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion, and products and services that are designed to better reflect the diversity of the world we live in.”
The changes to Siri are already available in Apple’s iOS 14.5 beta, and will take effect for those setting up a new Apple device when the software update rolls out more widely later this year.
The discussion about the female-only voice assistants is not a new one; but it is connected to the gender biases in Artificial Intelligence and the lack of diversity in the designing teams.
Read on Moonshot News: Why voice assistants are STILL all female.
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