Technology
Like it or not, our robots are oozing with gender stereotypes, reinforcing and arguably amplifying them as well. It’s not by chance that a receptionist robot is designed with feminine appearance and the ones meant for security given hulk-like features for “authoritative” presence.
Robots, a mere assembly of inanimate plastics and metals or sets of binary digits as in case of voice assistants, assume gender identities based on how the role they play meshes with our gender stereotypes, explains Julie Carpenter, who studies human-robot interaction, notes Wired.
Instead of attempting to confront the stereotypes, as humanoid robots enter the social alleys, our designers, are consciously or unwittingly, fallen prey to exploiting the existing biases.
London-based AI technologist, Kriti Sharma, who featured on “Forbes 30 under 30 Europe" list, attributes the dangerous trend attaching stereotypical gender identities to robots to male domination in technology fields and particularly AI, reports PRI.
