Female voice AI more popular with 35 and under age group

[kestrell]

Although this article
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/female-voices-assistance-digital-audio-alexa-research-young-people-a8614401.html
makes this sound like a new trend, Cliff Nass, who was studying computer voices back in the 1980s and 1990s, always stated that female voices were preferred, except in Japan, where male voices were considered to be more intelligent and authoritative.
Ironically, back in the '90s and the aughts, I preferred male voices, set very low in pitch, but in the past few years, I have preferred female voices. This might just be because female voice AI have become more pervasive, and thus become more integrated to "the voice in my head," which is what I call the kind of AI voice that becomes so quotidian as to be rendered unnoticed as something "other," something occurring outside of my own thoughts.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Or....female voices are easier to hear, since our hearing degrades in the mid-ranges as we age?

[cvirtue]

I have various computer voices set to male; I did it mostly out of perversity, but once someone else reacted with surprise, I became committed to male voices for this purpose.

[metahacker]

This is similar to my situation. Also, I find Sir easier to understand than Siri (I've opted for British Male, which seems to be most classic-butler-like).

[kestrell]

*facepalm* It's true, if there is a Brit male voice available, that is definitely my preference and, as a matter of fact, that is what my Jaws screenreader is set to at this moment but, like I said, most of the time I don't notice because it is conflated with the voice in my head. A lot of my devices don't have the British English option though, like my ebook reader.
I also wonder why all the voices have to be gendered. It's not that unusual for me to meet people whose voice sounds as if it could be either a female alto or a male baritone, and these people are usually named Chris, so no help there. I understand that gender is often one of the first characteristics people use to develop their image of another person's identity, but does it really need to be?

[duskpeterson]

I've always set my computer voices so that they're androgynous. Works well when they're reading dialogue of various characters.

[kestrell]

What are you using for speech? I think all the accessible tech gives the voices very gendered names and very gender-identifiable voices, except maybe for the kid voice, which is named Kit.

[duskpeterson]

You have to adjust the pitch to get the androgynous effect. On Voice Dream, I use Acapela's Sharon with a pitch of 85, which is lower than average. If I were using a so-called male voice, I'd adjust the pitch upwards.

[kestrell]

Oh, okay, but there's still no getting saway from the gendered naming process, too bad.

[duskpeterson]

Given that the voices can change pitch, I like to think of them as nonbinary. :)