Anthropomorphizing Voice Assistants: A Research Agenda for Human–AI Relationships

Voice-based assistants (VBAs) are extensively embedded into many people’s lives through smartphones, smart speakers, global positioning systems, and other voice-enabled devices. User studies indicate that they can be helpful and accessible aids for completing everyday tasks; however, there is a growing body of concerns relating to their impact on society. Many of these relate to the anthropomorphization of VBAs, and, in particular, their presentation as deracialized and feminized figures, which are imbued with compliant service-based personas that commonly manifest in social robots. This chapter maps the key developments in research on the social implications associated with the anthropomorphization of VBAs, focusing on the intersecting themes of race, gender, and age-based inclusion across three areas of research on anthropomorphized VBAs. First, we identify the decisions and biases evident in the commercial imaginaries of VBAs, where controversies and diversities are erased or glossed over in order to promote an idealized and familiar future. Second, we explore how race, gender, and age have been mobilized in the design decisions of VBAs, which prioritize stereotypical traits in order to improve likability and usability. Third, we consider how anthropomorphized VBAs are encountered in everyday life in ways that both exacerbate and complicate commercial imaginaries and usability intentions. We draw on this analysis to outline the methods, approaches, and critical agendas for understanding the inclusion implications of VBAs. We conclude by calling for a focus on VBAs as a window into our future relationships with everyday AI and robotics.