It's creepy that AI robots are usually women

[Diddykong]

Just watched this news story and find it disturbing that these robots always tend to be female presenting and serve men. Are there examples of robots created by women? What do they look like?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-66141835

in this situation, where the scientists are trying to convince people AI robots won’t take over the world, women are seen as pacific, non-threatening, maternal. So they land a soft message well.

If they had given a male voice to an 18 foot animated arachnoid with red eyes and talons, the message “I do not currently plan to destroy my creator” might have sounded less reassuring?

Do you know why videos were so popular and had so much success and why VHS beat betamax?

Do you know why the internet developed so quickly and why broadband was taken up much more quickly than industry expectations and technological change would otherwise have predicted?

The fact that female robots are being developed is a clue to the above.

VHS was cheaper than beatmax and this made up for the lack of quality over betamax. It allowed for the production and distribution of cheap mass market porn.

Broadband took over that market. Porn on dialup just wasn't doing the business.

Technological change follows patterns of demand. The demand for cheap easily accessible porn was huge and the money it generated was enormous and drove video and the internet.

NOW ask yourself, why female robots?

Home video and broadband technologies being popular was not the result of the porn industry.

It was because they were great, cheap technologies that improved people's lives.

Biotechnology involves using biological processes and organisms to develop products and technologies. This includes genetic engineering, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and agricultural advancements

I wonder if Frankenstein's monster would have done better if it had been female?

I studied AI at uni. I made a female chatbot and studied how people interacted with her. So I am a woman who made a female bot. Chatbots have often the role like receptionist, secretary, steward … roles that are irl typically women.
I did research on different looks of chatbots. People were much more responsive when the chatbot was a human female then to a cartoon animal. But i did not compare it to a human male. It would have been interesting!

I've learned a lot looking at this thread so thanks. My only query is where do care robots fit in? They are used a lot in Japan and are definitely made to look like robots and not humans.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065135/japan-automating-eldercare-robots/

I don't think it detracts from the basic premise of this thread but it seems like care robots are the exception that proves the rule.

A smart woman is more believable

Male AI/Robots

Hal 9000
T-101
T-1000
Ash
Robocop
ED-109
David

They play with the trope by using female or child voices/visualisations occasionally for ones that are supposed to be service units - but in all, it's because male voiced AI characters were historically insane, murderous and graphically violent.