Should Christians Use Gendered Pronouns for Alexa or Siri?

Should Christians use gendered pronouns for Alexa or Siri?

At a recent meeting of denominational publishers, a presentation was given by a vendor selling AI-powered software for publishers. Throughout the presentation, the salesperson talked about how our customers would be transformed if they could “Chat with your content.” She said it so often, I had to interrupt and remind her we’re talking about communicating with a machine, right? “Is it smart to use a word that suggests we are talking to a someone? Like a human someone?” I asked. She agreed it could be interpreted that way, but we couldn’t come up with a nice, short way to say the same thing.

Then this “Big Question” came through. It’s a good question, as studies show that the words we use for something affect how we think of that thing. And vice versa: what we think of something affects how we refer to it.

Humans alone are made in God's image; wisdom calls us to avoid blurring the distinction between people and machines.

That said, if we can all agree—and remember—that we are talking with a machine and not another human, I don’t think it matters how we refer to it. In fact, for both Siri and Alexa, you can change the so-called wake word to anything male or female, animated or not. (For a machine that is always listening, “wake” seems misleading to me, but I digress.) Maybe, to remind you that it’s not a human, change the wake word to “machine,” as in “Hey machine, how hot is it outside?” Or maybe, “Hey eavesdropper … .”

As fast as AI is progressing, though, I don’t have high hopes that we, as a society, are going to be able to maintain the essential separation between humans and the machines, but we should try—and we definitely need to make sure our kids and grandkids know the difference. And for all to keep asking how these tools are shaping us and our understanding of what it means to be human.

Speaking of how to interact with these ever-more-natural-sounding machines, I ran across a good piece of advice for AI prompts (those written or spoken words we submit to AI hoping for a helpful and somewhat accurate response): Like that new kid at school who would say anything to make a new friend, AI is programmed to flatter you. It wants to be liked and kept close. But more often what we need is something closer to an old friend who will tell us the truth regardless. A columnist at Tech Brew (techbrew.com) suggested adding something like, “Please be critical but supportive; I want balanced feedback, not validation,” to your prompt.