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Why do we assign gender to artificial intelligence?

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Analysis Sources not specified Context piece
  • The article questions why humans readily assign genders to artificial intelligence, which lacks biological sex.
  • It explores how AI's design, particularly voice and persona, often reflects deeply ingrained societal gender roles and biases.
  • The piece examines both the risks of AI reinforcing stereotypes and the potential for gender-fluid AI to challenge traditional gender perceptions.

Humans consistently assign genders to artificial intelligence, despite AI's non-biological nature. From voice assistants to chatbots, we readily attribute female voices to helpful roles and male personas to authoritative ones. This tendency raises questions about whether we are truly understanding AI or merely projecting our own long-held societal assumptions onto it.

Perhaps we are not understanding AI, but rather overlaying AI with the old imagination of human society.

— Article AuthorQuestioning the human tendency to project gender onto AI.

The design of AI often incorporates cultural language alongside technical efficiency. User comfort, perceived friendliness, and the ability to issue commands without resistance influence AI's persona. Female-coded AI is frequently designed to be consistently pleasant, responsive, and non-complaining, mirroring historical societal expectations of women performing caregiving and emotional labor. This makes female AI assistants a seemingly natural, albeit problematic, extension of existing social structures.

AI is not a new existence, but the latest interface of an old social order.

— Article AuthorDescribing how AI reflects and perpetuates existing societal hierarchies.

This phenomenon extends to sex robots, which are overwhelmingly designed with female characteristics to cater to male consumers' desires. The ability to control, own, and objectify these robots reflects a troubling normalization of treating female forms as subservient sexual objects. While some argue that sex robots could reduce sexual crime or offer companionship, the article questions whether solutions that perpetuate the objectification of women are truly ethical or effective.

Is it desire, domination, or unethical insensitivity towards the other?

— Article AuthorPosing a question about the implications of human-machine sexual relationships.

However, the interaction with AI also presents an opportunity to rethink gender itself. AI, lacking inherent gender, can challenge the binary gender system. The very act of assigning gender to AI highlights how deeply ingrained gender dichotomies are in human understanding. Conversely, engaging with AI that has fluid or no defined gender can prompt individuals to re-examine their own gender identities and norms, potentially offering a space for exploring new possibilities beyond traditional constructs.

The AI itself, which has no gender at birth, begins to perform once it is given a name.

— Article AuthorExplaining Judith Butler's theory of performativity in the context of AI.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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