With forecasts suggesting that voice commerce will be an $80 billion business by 2023, voice AI or text to speech technology is becoming increasingly popular and powerful today.

While the benefits of voice AI are significant, it also presents serious concerns over bias and human safety, which could add to various inequalities.

One particular area of concern here is how voice AI or text to speech voices promote unfair gender stereotypes. For instance, the data sets that power these text to speech voices frequently have blind spots, which means that certain communities and populations can’t access either the technology’s full potential or access it at all.

In the blog post, we explore why this gender bias is so prevalent in voice AI tech and what measures can be taken to alter this bias.

Why There is a Lack of Diversity in text to speech Voices

The key reasons mentioned by developers of female-toned and named voices being the most commonplace in voice AI are:

a. Studies state that female voices sound more pleasant and helpful as compared to their male counterparts.

While this claim is not only difficult to prove, there also has been criticism that the choice of such female voices for voice AI reinforces gender stereotypes. It also makes it much more difficult for companies to enter the market with a male voice assistant.

b. Another reason why an increasing number of companies hesitate to introduce male voice assistants is the fact that it requires substantial effort to develop a high-quality computer voice and make it perfect for the intended application.

c. Branding is another aspect where companies want the default voice to be both recognizable and consistent with their product positioning.

How to Address Gender Biases Incorporated in Voice AI

Here are some of the ways companies can use to address gender biases incorporated in text to speech voices:

1. Developing industry-wide standards for the humanization of AI and how gender is portrayed in voice AI products

Today, there are no industry-wide guidelines when it comes to humanizing AI. While some organizations like Google have opted to either offer multiple voice options or choose gender-neutral product names, others have simply chosen to incorporate gender-specific names, appearances, voices, or other features within voice AI bots.

It is therefore important to guide current or future voice AI products to help businesses benefit from industry standards and address gender characteristics in AI.

Some of these standards should include:

• Guidelines related to the humanization of AI, such as and when it is appropriate to do so and what kind of research is required to mitigate bias or stereotype reinforcement of voice AI
• Better contributions from AI developers who reflect diverse populations, including diversity of gender, identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and more
• Proper definitions of female, male, gender-neutral, and non-binary human voices and when each one of these would be appropriate to use
• Metrics that are achievable for accuracy in speech recognition, including identification of gender-based harassment
• Different ways to address varying cultural standards in conversation, especially when developing text to speech assistants to be deployed in multiple countries
• Methods for organizations to reduce algorithmic bias in programmed conversational response
• Definitions of gender-based harassment in the context of AI bots or voice assistants.
• Guidelines for how voice AI bots should respond when such harassment takes place and analysis of the consequences of giving no response/negative responses/support and other reactions

2. Reducing barriers to entry for students to access a STEM education

One of the other issues that need to be addressed for the lack of diversity in voice AI is the underrepresentation of women and non-binary individuals in AI classrooms.

This inhibits the growth and development of a diverse technical workforce that can address complex gender issues in voice AI bots.

Therefore, it is important to continue efforts in research and identify the challenges that women and non-binary individuals disproportionately face in education.

Besides, efforts also need to be taken in terms of how demographic factors such as race and income intersect with overall enrollment or performance, and necessary steps need to be taken to mitigate these barriers.

3. Encouraging companies to collect and publish data relating to gender and diversity in their voice AI products 

When it comes to quantifying and analyzing the relationship between technology, AI, and gender issues, real-world information can be very valuable for researchers.

Apart from data, it would also require some degree of transparency from technology companies so that relevant stakeholders would benefit from enhanced insight into areas. Companies can do this by:

• Publicly disclosing the demographic composition of their AI development by race, gender, and geographic location to increase transparency
• Releasing market research findings for current voice AI bots, such as consumer preferences for voices. This information would be very helpful to add to existing research on human perceptions of gendered voices while also offering another layer of transparency in the development of popular voice AI products.
• Contributing to research on gender-neutral AI voices, which in turn, could help avoid general bias or binary stereotypes. 

To Conclude

To be able to create socially beneficial voice AI technology, it is important to hold discussions on gender. Modern voice assistants require special scrutiny due to widespread consumer adoption and the human tendency to personify these objects by assigning gender.

To be able to address gender portrayals in voice AI, it is vital for developers and tech teams to focus on diversifying their engineering teams, enhance transparency, and develop industry-wide standards for gender in AI bots.

The sooner we start addressing such issues and normalizing questioning gender representation in voice AI, the simpler it will become to continue such conversations as future text to speech tech emerges.