美国国家公共电台 NPR Meet Q, The Gender-Neutral Voice Assistant

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When most people talk to technology, whether it's Alexa or Siri or Google Assistant, the voice that talks back sounds female. Some do choose a male voice. And now researchers have been developing a gender¹-neutral option called Q. NPR's Dalia Mortada reports.

DALIA MORTADA, BYLINE²: Meet Q.

Q: Hi. I'm Q, the world's first genderless voice assistant.

MORTADA: The voice of Q was developed using dozens of voices.

Q: My voice was recorded by people who neither identify as male nor female and then altered to sound gender-neutral, putting my voice between 145 and 175 Hertz.

MORTADA: That's the range audio researchers identified for the best gender-neutral effect. Julie Carpenter is an expert in human behavior and emerging technologies. And she was one of the researchers behind Project Q.

JULIE CARPENTER: One of our big goals with Q was to contribute to a global conversation about gender and about gender in technology and ethics³ and how to be inclusive with people that identify in all sorts of different ways.

MORTADA: She points out that people often expect to hear a particular kind of voice in a given situation.

CARPENTER: There is a history of research that shows often that people might prefer to hear a female-sounding voice in some situations, particularly when the tasks associated with that voice are assistive. It really reinforces gender stereotypes⁵.

MORTADA: Q would give companies a chance to break through that stereotype⁴ if they choose. The team behind Project Q includes Carpenter, the organizers of Copenhagen Pride Week, technology leaders in an initiative called Equal AI, along with linguist⁶ sound designers and others. They settled on this version of Q after playing it for transgender people in Denmark, England and Venezuela. You won't hear Q on your phone or home assistant tomorrow, but the developers hope that big companies will pick it up as a more inclusive voice option. Dalia Mortada, NPR News.

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

4 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

5 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。