Alexa, Google, Siri: What are Your Pronouns? Gender and Anthropomorphism
  in the Design and Perception of Conversational Assistants
  Technology companies have produced varied responses to concerns about the
effects of the design of their conversational AI systems. Some have claimed
that their voice assistants are in fact not gendered or human-like -- despite
design features suggesting the contrary. We compare these claims to user
perceptions by analysing the pronouns they use when referring to AI assistants.
We also examine systems' responses and the extent to which they generate output
which is gendered and anthropomorphic. We find that, while some companies
appear to be addressing the ethical concerns raised, in some cases, their
claims do not seem to hold true. In particular, our results show that system
outputs are ambiguous as to the humanness of the systems, and that users tend
to personify and gender them as a result.
