Voices from the uncanny valley: How robots and artificial intelligences talk back to us

Abstract

<p>Voice is a powerful tool of agency – for humans and non-humans<br>alike. In this article, we go through the long history of talking heads<br>and statues to publicly displayed robots and fortune-tellers, as well as<br>consumer-oriented products such as the late 19th century talking dolls<br>of Thomas Edison. We also analyse the attempts at making speaking<br>machines commercially successful on various occasions. In the end,<br>we investigate how speech producing devices such as the actual digital<br>assistants that operate our current technological systems fit into this<br>historical context. Our focus is on the gender aspects of the artificial,<br>posthuman voice. On the basis of our study, we conclude that the<br>female voice and other feminine characteristics as well as the figures<br>of exoticized and racialized ‘Others’ have been applied to draw attention<br>away from the uncanniness and other negative effects of these<br>artificial humans and the machinic speech they produce. Technical<br>problems associated with the commercialization of technologically<br>produced speech have been considerable, but cultural issues have<br>played an equally important role.<br></p>