Developers create the world’s first genderless voice for AI

“I am not male or female. I think I float somewhere in between,” British singer Sam Smith said on March 15. The 26-year-old singer received the support of sexual minorities by stating “when I saw the words ‘non-binary,’ which is used to describe those who identify as neither exclusively male nor female, I thought that was me.” Those who identify themselves as non-binary like Sam Smith prefer to use the gender-neutral pronounces “they” and “them.”

U.S. technology magazine WIRED reported that non-binary is also used in voice support of Artificial Intelligence.” The AI voice “Q,” which was developed by advertising firm Virtue Nordic in collaboration with Copenhagen Pride, promotes a voice without gender for the first time. Those who developed “Q” created the voice by combining the voices of people who are a part of various genders such as male, female, transgender, and non-binary. The magazine also delivered that the voice sits between 145 and 175 hertz, which doesn’t sound like a man or a woman.

AI assistants such as Alexa reinforce a dated tradition of gender norms that women are assistants of a working person, said Julie Carpenter, a scientist who participated in producing “Q, adding that the genderless AI voice has been created to make it sound human, rather than the voice of a certain gender.


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