Anti-Gender Bias Coding Campaigns : 22squared Tampa

22squared Tampa, a full-service advertising agency, recently debuted its new anti-sexism in coding campaign titled ‘Not That Kind of Assistant.’ The campaign was launched by a team of summer interns to advocate against big tech including unconscious gender bias in artificial technology.

The campaign highlights some problematic tendencies and states: “digital assistants are programmed to respond to harassment with passive, coy, or even flirtatious responses.” The ad highlights some of the docile responses when users call the voice assistant fat or annoying. One study also highlights the fact that most digital assistants have female names — Alexa, Siri, Cortana, — in addition to default female voices, and this programmed coding can reinforce damaging stereotypes of women.

The group behind Not That Kind of Assistant asks technology corporations to #CanceSexistTech and to code appropriate AI.