‘Hey, Update My Voice’ movement by UNESCO against gender bias and sexual harassment of AIs

Virtual assistants are increasingly present in people’s lives, helping clear doubts and making everyday life easier. What they all have in common is a standard female voice and a woman’s name, such as Lu, Siri, Alexa, Nat, Bia, etc. According to a study released in May 2019 by UNESCO called ‘I’d Blush If I Could,’ virtual AI assistants have been suffering verbal harassment of a sexual nature, to which they usually respond with tolerant, subservient and passive remarks. The ‘#HeyUpdateMyVoice’ movement, in partnership with UNESCO, was born out of this context with the goal of teaching respect towards virtual assistants and, in addition, asking tech companies to update their assistants’ responses. Because if that happens to them, imagine what happens in real life to real women. The movement and campaign were created and developed by SunsetDDB in Brazilan agency part of DDB Latina

#HeyUpdateMyVoice website

The movement

“In order to contribute to better education of current and future generations, the movement “Hey, Update My Voice” was created.
A non-branded movement for every brand: women’s rights institutions and company using virtual assistants.

Our goal is to ask the leading Silicon Valley companies to update the responses of their virtual assistants. So that they are no longer subservient and passive, and that they have an active voice and give serious and educational responses when they suffer any kind of harassment.”

Tags:
Sexual Harassment, UNESCO, Gender Bias, Als, Hey Update My Voice, Siri, Alexa, AI assistant, Verbal Harassment, Technology, Innovation, Virtual Assistants, Women Empowerment, Women Rights, Gender Equality, AI, Human Rights, Google Assistant, Bixby, Cortana, Xiao, Lu, Nat, Bia, Vivi, Artificial Intelligence, I’d Blush If I Could, sexual abuse