OK, I'm glad my city is saving money during its budget crisis...

[firecat]

...and having an interactive kiosk at city hall instead of a human receptionist is probably a reasonable way to save money.

But did they have to gender it?

http://www.cityofsancarlos.org/civica/press/display.asp?layout=1&Entry=480

"Carly appears in the center of a monopoly-board screen that offers a menu of city departments and services. The Virtual Receptionist is designed to greet visitors and provide much of the assistance a human used to offer.

Residents can access the kiosk via the touch screen monitor, by tapping on the icons that surround her, gaining access to valuable information including department phone numbers and directions to the many city hall offices. In addition, when you click on Carly she begins talking and explaining what services are on the first floor and the second floor, and what services the city provides.

Comments

[anansi133]

It never occurred to me before, what an ungendered humanoid personality might look like. Seems like a good idea, develop a generic genderless voice, and put it firmly in the public domain.

[flarenut]

Is there such a thing as a generic genderless voice, or -- assuming the quality is high enough -- will people always hear it as gendered?

(When I think about this I flash back to an experience I once had at a conference where I was looking for a female friend's presentation, walked into the back of a big room and saw what for a few seconds seemed to me a young man with a high tenor voice talking about exactly the subject my friend was...)

[firecat]

I suspect if you didn't use a gendered image, named the avatar "Sandy" or some other name suitable for both men and women, and used a voice in the middle of the human voice register, some people would still gender it, but they might not all gender it the same.