Isn't interesting that before #AI could code, assistants were always gendered #female (Siri, Alexa, etc.) As soon as AI became able to code, it got #male or non-gendered names (Claude, Chat GPT). I'm not saying explicitly gendering assistants as female was a good thing. I'm saying it's interesting that the trigger for tech/society in general to stop doing that was when the AI became able to write programs. It really does say something unflattering about our assumptions and worldview.
@fastfinge I htink there might be something there, but at the same time no matter how these things are done someone will see something in it. For example I remember someone commenting Dawkins wanted to call his instance of Claude Claudia instead, and saw it as a form of sexism. But that's more or less the opposite to your point.
Out of curiosity do you think of AI assistants as having a gender? I generally don't. Though I'm used to male synthetic voices.
@modulux Coding harnesses, no. But I also wouldn't ask a coding harness assistant style questions. I do think of my general purpose hermes agent as female, largely because I tend to use "her" for brainstorming, rubber ducking, and reminder/memory/calendar/second brain management in ways I do not use a coding harness like codex or Claude code. I interact with them both by typing messages and hearing responses via eloquence, so it's not a voice thing. Seems to do with how much of a fake personality overlay I need them to have to be useful.
@fastfinge Interesting. Presumably male Eloquence voice? Same as me then.
I've no idea why but I'm comfortable not anthropomorphising these things too much. I do imagine they hold beliefs and know things, but I don't see them as gendered somehow.
@modulux Yup. And I don't attribute opinions to my coding harness. But I do to my general purpose agent. And I prefer "her" to have opinions and express things from a particular point of view, whereas I always want my coding harness to use neutral language. It's just because particular interactions are easier when presented in particular ways.
