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Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa has been accused of sexism after she failed to respond to a question about the Lionesses’ World Cup semi-final.
British academic Dr Joanne Rodda asked Alexa about the result of Wednesday’s match against Australia, which England won 3-1.
But the supposedly “smart” tech didn’t even know the match had taken place, as it was only familiar with the men’s game, reports the BBC.
Amazingly, when Dr Rodda asked ‘about the result of the England v Australia football match’, Alexa said there was no match.
Amazon admitted the error was due to a “mistake” — though it didn’t specify the cause — and that Alexa will get better at learning over time.
Amazon, which released its 5th-generation Echo Dot smart speaker (pictured) last year, confirmed it is phasing out celebrity voices. The fun tool allows users to receive audio responses from their Echo device in the voice of their chosen celebrity
The Lionesses won 3-1 against Australia on Wednesday to reach the World Cup final. Pictured England midfielder Keira Walsh (left) with Australia’s Clare Hunt during the match, which took place at Sydney’s Stadium Australia
Dr. Rodda, a psychiatrist at Kent and Medway Medical School, told the BBC it showed that “sexism in football was embedded in Alexa.”
She only got the answer from Alexa when she mentioned that she was talking about women’s soccer and not men’s.
‘When I asked Alexa about ‘the women’s football match between England and Australia today’ I got the result,’ said Dr Rodda.
“(It’s) quite sad that after almost a decade of Alexa, the AI algorithm has only today been ‘fixed’ so that it now recognizes the Women’s World Cup as ‘soccer.'”
Dr. Rodda also had trouble getting information about the Women’s Super League – the top tier of women’s play in England and the equivalent of the Premier League.
“Out of interest, I just asked Alexa who the Arsenal football team will play against in October,” she said.
“It replied with information about the men’s team and couldn’t answer when I asked specifically about the women’s games.”
Amazon’s smart assistant powers the Echo speakers, including the spherical fourth-generation Echo released in fall 2020 (pictured)
In response to a request for comment, an Amazon spokesperson told MailOnline, “This was a bug that has been fixed.”
According to the company, information is pulled from a variety of sources when a customer asks Alexa a question.
These include “licensed content providers and websites,” although it did not specify which – or whether this includes recent sports coverage.
Amazon has already faced sexism accusations from the UN, which claimed that using a female voice reinforces the idea that women are “submissive.”
It also criticized the way female AI systems generally respond to gender-based insults with “distracting, bland or apologetic responses.”
Amazon took action in 2021 by introducing a male voice to its smart speakers, giving users another option to choose from and restoring balance.
Also that year, Amazon added “Ziggy” as one of its “wake words” — words users can say before a command to make sure the smart assistant is listening.
But to reflect modern gender diversity, Amazon let users choose between the male or female voice and use one of the wake words to activate them.
This means that users may be able to start a command with the word “Ziggy” and hear the female voice respond, or say “Alexa” and hear the male voice respond.
More recently, the tech giant has retired all three celebrity voices for its smart speakers: Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Melissa McCarthy.
Amazon used to offer the superstar voices for $4.99 each as an Alexa alternative, but they are no longer available for purchase on their website.