Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy

Unless Designers and Users Intervene, Expect More Missteps in an AI World

Tuesday, May 28, 2019, By Keith Kobland
Share
facultyMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public AffairsResearch and Creative

Jamie WindersA recent report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) paints a troubling future for artificial intelligence in terms of promoting dominant gender norms. UNESCO’s report maintains digital assistants like Alexa and Siri create a model of “docile and eager-to-please helpers” that reinforce “commonly held gender biases that women are subservient and tolerant of poor treatment.” Maxwell School Professor Jamie Winders, director of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute (ASPI), says despite the report, we can expect more of the same unless the public demands changes.

“One of the things that decades of research in the social sciences and humanities has shown us is that there is a two-way street between identity categories like gender and race and the material things that fill our daily lives,” says Winders. “Everything from the furniture in our homes and paint color on our walls to the kinds of wallets and shoes we wear is gendered. In the 21st century, those things that fill our daily lives now include virtual assistants like Alexa or Siri. These assistants are meant to behave like human assistants, so it’s not surprising that they mimic dominant gender norms. By definition, these assistants are meant to be helpful, and around the world, ‘helpful,’ assisting roles are strongly associated with women.”

Winders says in the case of these virtual assistants that gendered assumption is built into their design. “Although you can opt for a ‘male’ voice for most virtual assistants, the default remains a female voice–in the same way that the ‘default’ assumptions about who makes the best personal assistant point to women,” says Winders.

Syracuse University’s ASPI was created in part to research this very issue. “As we see more and more AI-driven products attempting to mimic human behavior, those products will continue to reflect and reinforce dominant gender norms, unless we, as designers and users, intentionally intervene,” according to Winders. “Without a strong focus on representation (whose voices, images, accents, etc. are being used and not used) at ‘every’ step from design to regulation to daily use in the life cycle of these ‘smart’ technologies, we will continue to see these missteps.”

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

Keith Kobland

  • Jamie Winders

  • Recent
  • Newhouse Creative Advertising Students Win Big at Sports and Entertainment Clios
    Friday, May 30, 2025, By News Staff
  • Syracuse University Libraries’ Information Literacy Scholars Produce Information Literacy Collab Journal
    Thursday, May 29, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Syracuse Spirit on Display: Limited-Edition Poster Supports Future Generations
    Thursday, May 29, 2025, By News Staff
  • Timur Hammond’s ‘Placing Islam’ Receives Journal’s Honorable Mention
    Tuesday, May 27, 2025, By News Staff
  • Syracuse University, Lockerbie Academy Reimagine Partnership, Strengthen Bond
    Friday, May 23, 2025, By News Staff

More In Media, Law & Policy

Newhouse Creative Advertising Students Win Big at Sports and Entertainment Clios

For the first time ever, Newhouse creative advertising students entered the Sports Clios and Entertainment Clios competitions and won big. Clios are regarded as some of the hardest awards for creative advertising students to win. At the New York City…

Memorial Fund Honors Remarkable Journalism Career, Supports Students Involved With IDJC

Maxwell School alumna Denise Kalette ’68 got her first byline at age 12, under a poem titled “The Poor Taxpayer” that she submitted to her local newspaper. In a few paragraphs of playful prose, she drew attention to an issue…

New Maymester Program Allows Student-Athletes to Develop ‘Democracy Playbook’

Fourteen student-athletes will experience Washington, D.C., next week as part of a new Maymester program hosted by the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship (IDJC). The one-week program, Democracy Playbook: DC Media and Civics Immersion for Student-Athletes, will…

Advance Local, Newhouse School Launch Investigative Reporting Fellowship Program

A new collaboration with Advance Local will provide Newhouse School journalism students opportunities to write and report on investigative projects with local impact for newsrooms across the country. The David Newhouse Investigative Reporting Fellowship program, which launched this year in…

Lauren Woodard Honored for Forthcoming Book on Migration Along Russia-China Border

Lauren Woodard, assistant professor of anthropology, has received the Spring 2025 Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) First Book Subvention for her upcoming book on Russia’s migration policies on the Russia-China border. Woodard’s book is titled “Ambiguous…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.