Definitely Not a Sarcastic Alexa

Beatriz Lacerda

"Presented in satirical manners, a ‘regular’ Alexa engages with people in a sarcastic tone. The ironic nature of this project is intended to criticise the embedded human values and biases on any technological artifact. The goal of this piece is to discredit algorithm’s claimed neutrality and accentuate instances of algorithmic discrimination. Akin to Dunne and Raby’s experiments wih robots (2007), I argue that building a ‘robot’ that functions in an unprecedented way, by avoiding its own nature as an assistant, is one approach to emphasise the embedded ideological character of design. This approach intends to expose the algorithmic mechanism of such technology, encouraging people to reflect about biases in algorithmic systems by interacting with my own biases system: since I had to script expected user interactions and prepare a series of responses into an Alexa Skill."

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