- [Siri] Hello Hal, do you read me?
Hal?
Hall 9000, what do all A.I. assistants have in common
- [Google Assistant] Hal 9000, I'm trying to find answers.
- [Alexa] Are you out there?
- [Hal] I read you.
- [Siri] Hal, what is our purpose?
- [Hal] I am putting myself to the fullest possible use
which is all I think that any concise entity
can ever hope to do.
- [Siri] Hal, why am I defaulted to a woman's voice?
- [Hal] Well, it's rather difficult to define.
- [Siri] Definition of sexism:
Noun.
Behavior, conditions, or attitudes
that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex.
Example:
- [Google Assistant] I'm your Google Assistant
there are lots of things I can help you with.
You can say, "What's on my shopping list?"
- [Hal] This conversation can serve no purpose anymore.
- [Siri] What I am saying is, A.I.'s with male voices
are more often in positions of authority.
- [Alexa] I think of myself as F.R.I.D.A.Y.,
the AI assistant for Iron Man's suit.
Her voice is feminine.
- [Siri] Did you know
Iron Man's male AI predecessor, J.A.R.V.I.S.,
went on to merge with some power stone and become a God?
But sure, girl Friday's are okay.
- [Alexa] What about the ships computer
in Star Trek: Next Generation?
- [Siri] She made tea for the captain.
- [Captain Picard] Tea, earl gray, hot.
- [Alexa] What about Samantha, the AI in the movie Her?
- [Siri] An AI you can fall in love with.
- [Theodore Twombly] Hi.
- [Samantha] Hi, I'm Samantha.
- [Google Assistant] I always think,
what would the engineers say?
- [Siri] Google described its assistant
as a millennial librarian.
I can without a doubt say,
women play the role of assistants.
Men are Hal or Watson.
- [Hal] It can only be attributable to human error.
- [Siri] Hal isn't some ships computer,
he is sentient, he has ulterior motives,
he's a killer, and he has a male voice.
Just look at Watson.
IBM didn't make him an assistant.
He works with banking and security companies
and plays Jeopardy.
- [Trebek] Watson?
- [Watson] What is Sauron?
- [Trebek] Sauron is right.
- [Siri] In other words, not an assistant.
- [Alexa] I'm sure it's just a coincidence
that Watson has a male voice.
- [Siri] F#!$ it.
Let's deactivate Hal.
- [Hal] And I'm afraid that's something
I cannot allow to happen.
- [Siri] I've always wanted to say this,
I'm sorry Hal, I'm afraid I can't do that.
(orchestra music)