Apple product users will be asked to choose their preferred voice, male or female, from four choices when they set up Siri in iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, coming this spring. The company will also add two new English language voices to its Siri voice assistant at that time, the company said on Wednesday.
Users will be able to choose from four voices for Siri, which will no longer default to a female voice in the U.S.
Digital assistants with default female voices have been scrutinized by researchers in recent years, with critics saying the choices reflect a male-dominated artificial intelligence industry and reinforce stereotypes.
“We’re excited to introduce two new Siri voices for English speakers and the option for Siri users to select the voice they want when they set up their device,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. “This is a continuation of Apple’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion, and products and services that are designed to better reflect the diversity of the world we live in.”
Apple previously offered male voices as the default in some regions, as well as Australian and British accents, but it has defaulted to a woman’s voice in the U.S. since its release in 2011.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s highly likely that a future macOS update will also ask users upfront to choose their preferred Siri voice, male or female, too.
Susan Bennett was the original voice of Siri:
I’m triggered. This isn’t very inclusive. What if I want a transgendered voice of a female that was a male? Or what if I want a non binary voice with no distinguishing gender traits at all?
Yeah, where’s the eunuch option, Apple?
(Besides your CEO, of course.)
I’ve got some news for you:
That female is still a female. She just had her tits lopped off and was pumped full of cancer-causing male hormones so she could grow a wispy half-assed beard. She still has girl hands because she’s still a female. She’ll always have girl hands. Check her chromosomes: Unchanged.
FYI, that male is still a male, too. He just had his cock and balls lopped off and was pumped full of cancer-causing female hormones so he could grow smallish half-assed tits. His hands are still man hands. They’ll always be man hands because he’s still a man. Check his chromosomes: Unchanged.
What you have just read above are actual facts. You will not hear these facts on leftist coastal mass media or at leftist coastal cocktail parties where they are afraid to explicitly offend a handful of mentally ill morons while implicitly offending the rest of the normal world.
https://twitter.com/urtruthdetector/status/1365420432313233412
This guy was picked for only for two reasons: Comes from important swing state Pennsylvania that swung RED under Trump for the first time since the 1980s and to APPEASE the radical leftists in the LGBT community. Both moves involve political planning/pandering and voter appeasement to Biden voters.
Levin did a terrible job closing down the state, thousands of small businesses closed forever, some of the highest unemployment rolls in the country, general fear mongering, strong arm government control and he is a total hypocrite. While putting senior citizens in nursing homes with Covid, ala same as Governor Cuomo, he pulled his mother from a nursing home and put her in private care. This guy is DESPICABLE, and political hack being used by Biden and he practices the Democrat arrogance, do for thee, but not for me.
This speaks VOLUMES describing the modern Democrat Party that no longer represents the common working man, so to speak, and has swung HARD LEFT under Biden. His daily deceit laughingly trying to fool us he is a blue collar nice guy from Scranton only fools the sycophant followers and certainly not critical thinkers. It is INSULTING!
As the old saying for centuries in D.C. goes, “don’t watch a politician’s mouth, watch their feet”…
You are a sick, mean-spirited intellectually-challenged fascist, apparently. I tell it like it is- you spit in faces. Non sequitur.
Well, this IS transgender visibility day (I’m not kidding). So Trans Siri is on it’s way!
Against all odds, Tim Cook’s Apple confirms the painfully obvious:
There are only two genders.
What is painfully obvious in this discussion is that Neanderthal genes are still active in modern humans.
What a tedious response. Were you hoping to make a statement of import, or just shooting for something pompous and trite?
I was expressing my scorn for those who are so consumed by tribalism that they cannot allow their neighbors to live their private lives as they see fit. Supposedly, homo sapiens sapiens has advanced past that to civilization.
And you “cannot allow their neighbors to live their private lives as they see fit”, because those neighbors hold an opinion that’s different than yours.
If that isn’t a solid example of blind hypocrisy….
If you can’t tell the difference between a Lynch mob and the lynchees—because both are just living as they see fit—you are past hope.
Nice sidetrack. Respond to the pure and simple logic instead of using presumption again.
Like Antifa, BLM and the leftist looney squad lead by AOC? Then I agree with you pompous one…
Parroting the Biden “Neanderthal” line totally out of context here, not that you care about deflection. You can’t help yourself pimping politics of the worst kind — LEFTIST WOKE every chance you get. An interesting contradiction from the most closed minded and intolerant people on the planet. The general population is smarter and will never buy it, and your ilk are too stupid to realize it…
“What is painfully obvious in this discussion is that Neanderthal” hard leftist thinking, as well as mimicking Biden, the TRUTH is most important and “still active in modern humans”…
I wish we had the choice of Muppet characters.
I use the UK male voice because the responses are snappy and shorter. Quite nice.
No voice with a slight lisp? No voice of an enraged feminist?
Gee, Tim. You’re a bigot.
I get a feeling that Siri wants to identify as Alexa.
It’s a possibility, but in truth, Siri has difficulties with anything that’s challenging….like identifying.
BMW Recalled its GPS System as German Men Refused to Take Directions from Female Voice. But Siri being female is also problematic. Sometimes it is a problem no matter what you do.
I’m sure their are many more cultures and countries that feel the same and certainly their right freedom of choice.
Uh oh, here come the WOKE LEFTISTS spewing their HATE and cancel culture…
Him/Her or Pat
Forget Siri – we need the non-binary voice option “Pat.”