Today's world is more technologically mediated than ever before. The progress in consumer smart technologies is wonderful and world-changing, but it is also racist, sexist, and discriminating. This thesis critically examines the prevailing issue of sexism in domestic Voice Assistants. The design inquiry investigates the anthropomorphism of technology leading to (false) emotional ties, the gendered representation of Voice Assistants as the 24/7 available persona, and the bigger question of how technology shapes human experience. The repercussions of these design choices contribute to reinforcing harmful gender biases and perpetuating inequality. Following the research through design principles, I have used design proposals, sketches, scenarios, and prototypes to reconsider and critically reflect upon current norms of design and interaction with voice agents at home. The outcome of my thesis is two speculative design videos that aim to show how interactions with domestic agents could look away from consumption and stereotypical gender roles. By doing so, it prompts key philosophical and ethical questions. What role should technology occupy in our lives?

Polyphonic envisions a future about how everyday life with a conversation agent could look like that has multiple identities, characters, and ideologies. By creating different identities with their ideologies and characteristics, I want to push against the current persona, which is submissive and capitalist (e.g., Alexa, which is linked to your Amazon account).

Ecoverse is more than a tool; it is a social actor that prompts mindfulness, philosophical insights, and a wise and guiding presence. The aim was to design a voice interface that is conscious of its impact on the environment and is designed to minimize its energy consumption and carbon footprint while promoting mindful interactions that encourage users to be present and attentive at the moment. Ecoverse's design invites presence, attention, physical presence, and ritualization of our everyday life with domestic Agents. This concept critiques aspects of the shy yet caring, 24/7 available assistant that fulfills demanding tasks.

Introduction

As technology has advanced, it has taken on more anthropomorphic characteristics, with voice assistants like Alexa and Siri becoming a part of our everyday lives. These assistants can perform various tasks, but their human-like qualities have raised ethical questions. The humanization of technology through voice interfaces, while enhancing user experience, also comes with trade-offs, such as the potential invasion of privacy, as these devices collect and sell user data to third-party vendors. Additionally, these voice assistants often exhibit gender biases, with most portraying an image of female personas. These so-called "smart wives" have been criticized by scholars for reinforcing traditional female stereotypes in design, voice, and personality. Tech companies may do this intentionally to build user trust and access intimate aspects of people's lives, leading to concerns about surveillance capitalism and privacy. Essentially, the personification of technology through voice interfaces has transformed our interaction with devices, which raises ethical and gender-related issues that deserve careful consideration. What and whose understanding of sociality and emotionality is realized in those systems?

By default, 3/4 of the most popular VAs are branded female through their branding, name, and female voice (see images on the right). Human-machine interactions with VAs happen through voice-activated interfaces. Giving these "things" a female voice automatically represents some kind of "personality" or "persona" in the user's imagination. Furthermore, their scripted personality is submissive, shy, caring, and nurturing. As more personal assistants are introduced into our homes, we develop even more intimate relationships with them, becoming a natural part of everyday life. They fulfill the fantasy of a machine that performs women's labor without being affected by stress, relationships, or the body. Those systems exploit or reinforce stereotypical social relations such as child mother (caregiver-infant) or owner-pet and thus trigger stereotypical behavior. However, we–the modern society of the 21st century– need to ask ourselves if personal assistants modeled after the infant-caregiver relationships represent our understanding of social relations.

Within the fields of Interaction Design (IxD) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), a growing body of unconventional design work has introduced us to alternative and oppositional functions of design. This is where my work is situated. It speculates about alternative futures, questions the status quo, and discusses systematic socio-political issues (e.g., gender, race, discrimination) centered around domestic VAs. Hence, this thesis is a speculative research through design (RtD) inquiry. Following the research through design principles, I have used design proposals, sketches, scenarios, and prototypes as a mode of investigation to reconsider and critically reflect upon current norms of design and interaction with voice agents at home. I have explored my thinking through making.

From a theoretical perspective, I built on the field of philosophy of technology (e.g., (Dreyfus, 1992); Ihde, 1993; Verbeek, 2005). I specifically draw on the approach of technological mediation, which is rooted in post-phenomenology. I focus on the technological mediation approach because it asserts an interactionist perspective on technology, acknowledging the role of both people and technologies in the joint production of reality, without either one independently determining its subjects and objects (e.g., Heidegger, 1977; Ellul, 1958).

Outcome

The outcome of my project is two speculative design videos that aim to show how interactions with domestic agents could look away from consumption and stereotypical gender roles. By doing so, it prompts critical philosophical and ethical questions. What role should technology occupy in our lives? I have used physical prototyping and video to display my thinking and prompt reflection for the final design outcome.

Polyphonic envisions a future Voice agent that has multiple identities. This concept critiques the singular voice and identity of current domestic voice agents. Moreover, changing from a female to a male voice regarding the topic pushes the boundaries of stereotypical gender norms embedded in the device. Additionally, it aims to make thinking about the connectivity of smart devices and their data collection component.

This scenario emphasizes voice agents as social actors. This scenario envisions a future where everyday life with a conversation agent could look like that has multiple identities, characters, and ideologies. By creating different identities with their ideologies and characteristics, I want to push against the current persona, which is submissive and capitalist (e.g., Alexa, which is linked to your Amazon account). Moreover, the identities become overly involved in the user's life with information obtained based on the connectivity to other devices (e.g., smartphone, text messages). Therefore, it also raises awareness towards the data collection component of such devices (e.g., what if your device starts to spy on you?).

Ecoverse showcases a scenario about a voice agent that has limited interactions. Ecoverse is more than a tool; it is a social actor that prompts mindfulness, philosophical insights, and a wise and guiding presence. The aim was to design a voice interface that is conscious of its impact on the environment and is designed to minimize its energy consumption and carbon footprint while promoting mindful interactions that encourage users to be present and attentive at the moment. Ecoverse's design invites presence, attention, physical presence, and ritualization of our everyday life with domestic agents.

This concept critiques aspects of the shy yet caring, 24/7 available assistant that fulfills demanding tasks. Furthermore, the incentive to push meaningful interactions proposes alternatives to over-consumption in today's society and most use cases of domestic VAs. Finally, the time-restricted interface also pushes boundaries regarding the enormous environmental impact of data collection from smart home IoT devices.

Artifact Design

While observing the images of current VAs, one can easily see that the form language is shy, with rounded edges, symmetrical, clean, and almost dull. They are designed to fade into the background with a singular form and identity. The speaker is often hidden in the object, and an LED light as small as a pin shows whether the speaker is interacting with you. There is no indicator about whether the device is on–it only shows whether it is currently interacting with you. Therefore, I wanted to transform the current form of language into something that differentiates itself from the background. Bold Edges, geometrical, asymmetrical, and overall loud objects. It is exploratory for people who do not live in generic apartments and who like modernist, edgy objects.

Conclusion

I want to emphasize (or hope) that designers and engineers who work for tech companies come into work and want to create something that hurts and reinforces stereotypes and biases. I believe the issue around gender, biases, and race is systemic. It cannot be easily solved with one solution but rather with multiple interventions that challenge current thinking about technology that go beyond technical fixes and incorporate broader social and cultural changes.

Even though technology has become such an integral part of our lives, it is still important to critically examine how we interact. We, designers, have to ask ourselves what norms we are materializing into the world through the artifacts we design. Nowadays, our views of and interaction with VAs are strongly anthropocentric and often permeated by the notion of dominance. Therefore, my work invites readers, viewers, users, non-users, and other designers to reflect and explore alternative ways of living along with domestic voice agents. I encourage a paradigm shift away from current norms and roles assigned to voice AI. We need to question whether domestic voice AI should only serve as assistants or if it can play a more meaningful role in our lives. Smart technologies like VAs are viewed as literal assistants to perform tasks based on their owner's demands. Therefore, to move on from 21st-century norms, we must challenge how we interact with current technology and what role it should fulfill.