Class 6 - The Gendered Other PDF

The Gendered Other: Part 2 Class 6 October 23, 2024 Agenda Recap last class: gender Discuss the readings: Watercutter, Angela. “Ex Machina Has a Serious Fembot Problem.” Kleeman, Jenny. “The Race to Build the World’s First Sex Robot.” Recap:...

The Gendered Other: Part 2 Class 6 October 23, 2024 Agenda Recap last class: gender Discuss the readings: Watercutter, Angela. “Ex Machina Has a Serious Fembot Problem.” Kleeman, Jenny. “The Race to Build the World’s First Sex Robot.” Recap: gender norms He talks about how cultures, social norms, and gendered expectations are always changing. What was “normal” 100 years ago might be quite different today. Gendered behaviors change from one culture to another. (of course it is much more complex than saying “now we’re going to do the opposite,” but you get the idea) Nex Benedict Nonbinary student in Oklahoma Age 16 Killed February 7, 2024 Recap: gender and technology Last class we talked about gender: how gender evolves in society, and how it impacts technology. We talked about training datasets, and how social bias can become part of technology as well. Algorithmic bias explained. TRT World. June 29, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWOUw8omU Vg  Gender/less robots? We also began to think about what gender is doing in technology: Why are robots (or technology) gendered? Does gender help us recognize or relate to technology? Or do you think it is not necessary? Meet Q Q is a genderless voice assistant: “Technology companies often choose to gender technology believing it will make people more comfortable adopting it. Unfortunately this reinforces a binary perception of gender, and perpetuates stereotypes that many have fought hard to progress.” “Q is an example of what we hope the future holds; a future of ideas, inclusion, positions and diverse representation in technology.” https://www.genderlessvoice.com/ Recap: gender and technology We looked at Sophia, a robot who is marketed as AI with emotions. She is intended to work in education, healthcare, and customer service. She reflects traditionally feminine appearances, emotions, work (care- giving roles). Recap: gender and technology Today we will look at a few more examples, including Ex Machina and sex robots. Our goal is to think about what gender is doing here: What does gender tell us about social expectations and norms? What does gender tell us about these technologies? Gendered representations in tech and film What are some examples of gendered technology? Sophia the robot, Alexa, Siri, (Voice Assistants and GPS systems), naming ships after women (and previously storms); Examples from media (film, tv) about gender and technology? Ex Machina, Her, Military robots tend to have masculine attributes; Ironman, and his assistant is a male voice ? (Jarvis); Video Games? Women tend to be very sexualized, men tend to be strong/muscular Gendered representations in tech and film How are feminine technologies portrayed? What about the masculine technologies? Ex Machina, 2015 How is technology represented in this film? How is gender represented? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQuVnKhxaM  The Turing Test What is the Turing Test? This idea was developed in 1950 by Alan Turing. It has become a key concept in technology. The Turing Test appears in science fiction and for real technologies. The Turing Test The purpose of the test is to see whether a human would believe they are talking to another human, rather than to a machine/AI. What is the purpose of this test? The Turing Test is not necessarily the best way of measuring how a computer/AI functions. But it has become very influential in how we imagine these systems. The Turing Test “What is the Turing Test?” CNET, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXx-PpEBR7k  The Turing Test Turing said that this test would show whether a computer/AI could communicate like a human. This test is often used to demonstrate that a machine can “think.” Turing said that knowing whether someone or something is “thinking” is a very difficult (and philosophical!) question to answer. Turing proposed “communication” (rather than thinking) to test a The Turing Test Turing actually proposed two tests: The first test was whether a person could tell if they were talking to a man or a woman. The second test was whether a person could distinguish between a person/man and a machine. Why does gender appear here? “If the goal is for a machine can convince a human that it's human, then the machine has to assume some kind of gender because we see all humans as having a gender.” (Watercutter) Fembots and sexuality What is Watercutter arguing in this article? She is concerned with how feminine robots are sexualized in film and media. The film shows Ava as a super-intelligent, futuristic AI robot. But because Ava is gendered female, she must use her sexuality and feminine appearance instead of her intelligence. Ava learns that she must be sexual in order to survive; otherwise the men in the film can deactivate/destroy her. Fembots and sexuality “Ava's predicament really isn't that different from many female AIs who have come before her, from Metropolis' Maria to Her's Samantha to Blade Runner's Pris.” Ex Machina is a fictional example of gender, sexuality, and technology. The film reflects gendered social norms and ideologies. Fembots and sexuality “Even AIs with no physical form at all seem to get sexualized based simply on their voices.” “We need to know about the disembodied voices of our AI avatars if they're female so that males can buy into the ideas of the sexualized person behind the representation.” “Her is playing on the fact that the audience knows what [Scarlett Johansson] looks like.” (Watercutter) Her, 2013. How are gender and technology represented here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJTU48_yg hs  “No one really needs to know who the voice of HAL was, because HAL was an intelligent 2001: A machine.” (Watercutter) Space As in the movie Her, most of our actual voice Odyssey assistant technologies are gendered female. Voice assistant technologies are also becoming part of our daily lives. Feminized voice assistants “as early as 2020, many people will have more conversations with digital assistants than with their spouse.” (UNESCO report, p. 92) “Today and with rare exception, most leading voice assistants are exclusively female or female by default” “Amazon has Alexa (named for the ancient library in Alexandria)” “Microsoft has Cortana (named for a synthetic intelligence in the video game Halo that projects itself as a sensuous unclothed woman)” “Apple has Siri (meaning ‘beautiful woman who leads you to victory’ in Norse).” “While Google’s voice assistant is simply Google  Feminized voice assistants “companies like Amazon and Apple have cited academic work demonstrating that people prefer a female voice to a male voice.” “companies make a profit by attracting and pleasing customers” “customers want their digital assistants to sound like women” “therefore digital assistants can make the most profit by sounding female.” But do people actually prefer female voices? It is difficult to answer this question; studies say that it isn’t clear. (UNESCO, p. 97) Feminized voice assistants “both men and women tend to characterize female voices as more helpful” “The perception may have roots in traditional social norms around women as nurturers” There are some “studies showing that most people perceive female voices as cooperative, in addition to helpful, while male voices are considered authoritative.” “Applied to technology, this would mean that consumers prefer female voices for digital assistants because…we want digital devices to support us, ‘but we also want to be the bosses of it’.” (98)  Fembots and sex robots These examples all connect technology with gender and sexuality. Although these are fictional examples, we can use them to think about the implications of real technologies like sex robots. Sex robots use all of these technologies (robotics, AI, and voice assistants), as well as relying on gendered social norms. Fembots and sex robots “Harmony at PERFECTION.” Science Gallery Dublin. 2019 https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=2Psdn2gBaQs&ab_c hannel=ScienceGalleryDubli n “The race “Online pornography pushed the growth of the internet, transforming it from a to build military invention used by geeks and academics to a global phenomenon.” the “Pornography was the motivator behind the development of streaming video, the world’s innovation of online credit card transactions and the drive for greater first sex bandwidth.” “If a domestic service humanoid is ever robot” developed, it will be as a result of the market for sex robots.” (Kleeman) Ethics and sex robots Sex robot manufacturers often suggest that they are companions to lonely people (men), and that these AI-powered robots can be someone for them to love. “I asked McMullen if he had ever considered that there could be something ethically dubious about being able to own someone that exists just for your own pleasure.” “She’s not a someone. She is a machine. I could just as easily ask you is it ethically dubious to force my toaster to make my toast.” “Either he is making a lifelike, idealised proxy girlfriend, a substitute woman that socially isolated men can connect with emotionally and physically – something he himself described as “not a toy” – or he is making an appliance, a sex object.” (Kleeman)  “Richardson claims that…human empathy will be eroded, and female bodies will be further objectified and commodified.” “Sex robots rest on an idea that women are Ethics and property.” sex robots Could these robots reduce violence against women? There is no clear evidence that controlled expressions of violence will reduce violence in the real world. (Kleeman)  The Redistribution of Sex Op-ed in the NYT suggested giving lonely/isolated young men sex robots in order to prevent violence against women.  “The race to build the world’s first sex robot” The Kleeman article describes some of the arguments for and against sex robots. What are the arguments in favor of sex robots? What potential ethical issues do sex robots raise? There are some companies that are producing sex robots that look like children. Is that a different issue? Why or why not? Sex robots and ethics Arguments in favor of sex robots? Ethical issues around sex robots? Loneliness / alienation / Normalize objectification of women, their bodies for pleasure. isolation? They look very lifelike. Reduce disease / STDs Psychological effects (?) Consent?? Potential protections for Increase of hedonism (?) sex workers / normalizing Is the human-like appearance meaningful? Do we perceive it as this work? human? Allows people to Temporary pleasure experiment with sexuality Increase of violence (women and children) Reduces taboos on Social effects/harm – what is the sexuality and sex role of rehabilitation? Lars and the Real Girl 2007 https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=XNcs9DrKYRU&ab_c hannel=MovieclipsClassicTra ilers “Don’t date robots” “Don’t date robots.” Futurama https://vimeo.com/12915013 Next week: Monday is a holiday No class on Monday – it is a holiday. On Wednesday, we will talk all about data Next week: Racialized technology Read: Najibi, Alex. “Racial Discrimination in Face Recognition Technology.” 2020. Benjamin, Ruha. Ch. 1: “Engineered Inequity.” For more: The Turing Test and Ex Machina: Thomas Flight, “Ex Machina as a Turing Test” YouTube. Oct 22, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMH9Y 0JoPRs Google, AI, and ethics on Tiktok: Gender norms on Tiktok Other ideas Could we design robots differently? Should robots say no? ( https://spectrum.ieee.org/human-robot-interaction). As another example of the perception of women created in technology, female avatars in games can be given. Their sexist appearances cause negative effects on body satisfaction in women ( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103120303917). An article examining the effects of gender robot design https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317575265_Gendered_Robots_Im plications_for_Our_Humanoid_Future Does the Instagram algorithm popularize a certain type of woman? Women undergo plastic surgery to look like certain types of women the algorithm suggested in its discovery page. In addition, filters such as 'fix me' create a certain perception like thick lips are more beautiful and this cause psychological effects on woman https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/10116341/instagram-fix-me-plastic-s urgery-filter-  Other ideas It is clear that there is a significant gender data gap disadvantaging women in areas such as healthcare, safety, job employment and many more that use technologies developed via the very same data. How frequently have you encountered people express anything about this problem and do you think the general public is aware enough of it? Why do you think companies like Apple resist making effort on producing non man-sized products even though women are more likely to buy their products? Is this gender gap only disadvantageous to women? Can you think of any occurrences that the gender gap data disadvantage men?