The LSE blog begins with:
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life, many systems are designed with human-like features: names, voices, faces that often carry gender cues. Popular voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa, for example, have historically defaulted to feminised voices, while humanoid robots like Grace are designed to resemble female caregivers.
These features are often treated as cosmetic. But what if they are not?
Professor Taha Yasseri and Dr Hao Cui have published their research on this topic in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports (ScienceDirect).