We’ve all heard someone say “robots are going to take over the world.” In a way, technology is being advanced to the point where this is possible. Some may not have noticed, but robots are being used for various different tasks. As time goes on these tasks they are able to perform are becoming more and more advanced. Artificial Intelligence Applications are “bots” such as Siri, Cortana and Alexa that are being introduced to our daily lives. These bots are programs that are designed to behave like a player or person. In order to do this, these bots are made with an autonomous program on a network such as the internet that interacts with computer systems or users. Bots are progressing and are being used for even more technological advances. Now the question is why and how are these bots assigned a gender?
Female and Male Bots
It is said that male engineering groups typically give female names to the bots they create. This is because the female voice is found to be more calming and that results in a more comfortable connection between a human and a bot. Although they try to say this is false and their bots are not gender specified, gender is shown through the voice, appearance (if shown) and name of the bot. Although a lot of bots are thought to be women, there are a lot of men bots as well and the numbers are closer than many would think. These male bots are mainly seen in movies as robots. Some movies with male bots would be Wall-E, iRobot, and Star Wars just to name a few. This does not exclude female bots from being in movies, such as the movie “Her,” it simply is justifying that male ones are more common.
What are these bots used for?
Almost every smart phone or gaming console is equipped with a bot. Some examples were listed earlier. The most well-known bot would be Siri. Siri is the Apple IPhone bot that assists in calling, texting, setting reminders or alarms and much more. Although Siri seems like a gender neutral name, the voice no matter the accent is a bit more feminine. A noticeably female bot would be Amazon’s Alexa. Alexa is very much like Siri except rather than being on a phone; this bot is its own individual product. Alexa is always listening and answers to what you ask or say. These bots are very useful and resourceful, but there are bots being created to be used for tasks that are even further advanced. Some things they are now being used for are: Self-driving cars, assistants and customer service. The most well-known advancement would probably be customer service. Everyone has seen how store after store is becoming equipped with self-checkout stations. These stations (that are operated by bots) are taking the jobs of human beings but are part of developing a better technology filled future. Having these bot controlled check out stations and virtual assistants has helped lead to the development of self-driving cars. So when they say robots are taking over the world they are pretty accurate.