I forgot about that! I would have been livid too.

That does sound rather charming ....

They called you sir? That's a bit weird for Australia ....

Absolutely! But it's a tricky one - prioritising male voices again if you see what I mean.

Defo - done in a very girlish tone.

Thanks everyone - it looks like there are three dictionaries in the queue after I've finished with friend Ambrose! No shortage of satire!

I read something recently about how young kids (like 5/6yrs old) that have been used to using Siri and Alexa at home, are using the same sort of abrupt demanding language with women outside of the home, because those tools are predominantly 'woman-coded' and instruction driven.

That makes me so depressed.

Oh god yes! To deliberately deceive. To create the sound of a body where there is nothing.

You know there are men who lose their shit at a hearing a female voice doing sports commentating, or reading the news!

I didn't know that, I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh yes!

How did they see it?

Interesting article!

However, the one that answers the taxi number has recently started mispronouncing my name - Alive (a typo I make myself sometimes, happy to be though) and today, A-love. How does that even work?

It's not just that the voices are young women; to make them sound realistic (it can be initially hard to tell it's not a real person) the voices are also slightly hesitant and use a rising inflection at the end of sentences. This makes them seem inexperienced and biddable.

Why your voice assistant might be sexist From reinforcing entrenched gender roles to potentially even fuelling misogyny, choosing the right voice for a particular task can be a minefield.

Yep! The AI related misogyny, due to who the default voice is etc. is deeply problematic - there are some explores of this out there now.

www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Oh that is so sad and beautiful.

That must have been VERY weird indeed!

Is that you, Bill?

I've been thinking about whether atomic oxygen turns aluminium spacecraft bodies into alumina, or whether it's resistent because in an alloy.

It says Gina was pretty, of course .....

Oh no I have found another dictionary that I may just have to skeet. Tell me, do you love my dictionary posts? Do you want more of them?

Thanks! This looks like a great reference.

Dust in Earth orbit slightly but measurably increases sky brightness, but the dust is removed by atmospheric drag fairly quickly so the problems for observing are less than the problems from bright satellite streaks. For one discussion: www.aanda.org/articles/aa/....

Also, go Miss Gladys!

Image of text in a passage from the novel. Dr. Hall is awakened, after his first night in the Project Wildfire complex, by a sultry woman's voice. It turns out to be an automatic system. Text reads: "Sorry," he said, "I wasn't sure how the thing worked. The voice is quite luscious." "The voice," said the supervisor heavily, "belongs to Miss Gladys Stevens, who is sixty-three years old. She lives in Omaha and makes her living taping messages for SAC crews and other voice-reminder systems." "Oh," Hall said. Excerpt is copyright 1969 by Centesis.

Hearkens back to the USAF human-factors research in the (Fifties?) that led to employing a woman's recorded voice for cockpit warnings. Nothing better for bringing a B-58(?) crewman to instant alertness.

As noted, fictionally, by Michael Crichton in novel & movie THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1969):

Hmmm yes. That would be a very interesting comparison ....

Not when an AI answers the phone!

Huh really! I must confess I don't use any Siris or Alexas, but I'm not surprised!