The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Agency: 22squared
Date: Jul 2019
Your Vote
4/5
Overall Rating
5/5
Opps, please vote again
3 votes

Indie agency 22squared has empowered a group of summer interns to call out big tech and challenge them to cancel sexist tech and the unconscious gender bias prevalent in artificial intelligence enabled voice assistants. The interns are launching an industry-driven initiative appropriately entitled, 'Not That Kind of Assistant', which formally launches via social media, influencer marketing and public relations. The initiative establishes alternative responses that digital assistants should be using in the face of harassment and sexist interactions.

It questions current responses by assistants, so the interns asked, "Do you think the correct response to 'You’re a slut' is 'Well, thanks for the feedback?' Neither do we. We are interns at 22squared Tampa, a full-service advertising agency, determined to give rise to change by fighting the gender bias coded into artificial intelligence."

The campaign establishes alternative responses that digital assistants should be using in the face of harassment. Studies show that more than 90 million smartphone users use digital assistants every month. However, the people responsible for developing this technology are primarily men. Women comprise only 15% of AI research staff at Facebook and 10% at Google. It’s predicted that by 2020, 50% of searches will be made via voice command.

It’s time to cancel sexist tech.

Digital assistants typically have default female voices and names - Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc. - and this only serves to reinforce stereotypes of women as servile and docile beings. There are countless instances of digital assistants giving passive, coy or flirtatious responses to blatant harassment.

These responses are unacceptable, and it’s time to change them. The interns want people to challenge tech companies to do better with their platforms and to code appropriate AI.

Credits

22squared