A recent research study conducted by Cornell University has found that when it comes to team collaboration, artificial intelligence (AI) can play a significant role, especially if it's represented with a female voice. It was observed that there's a boost in the level of participation and productivity among women on teams dominated by men if their AI-powered virtual teammate operates with a female voice.
The research implies that the gender of an AI's voice could be leveraged in order to subtly influence the dynamics of gender-imbalanced teams, implying the potential to form a more inclusive design for bots used in human-AI teamwork. The results echo prior studies indicating that when teammates share similarities with minority members on a team, there's an increase in their recorded participation levels.
The study was led by Angel Hsing-Chi Hwang, a postdoctoral associate in information science, and co-authored by Andrea Stevenson Won, an associate professor of communication at Cornell. To determine the influence of AI voice gender on gender-imbalanced teams, they conducted an experimental study on nearly 180 male and female participants, who were grouped into teams of three.
In each group, there was either one woman or one man, and an AI-based fourth member, represented as an abstract shape with either a male or female voice. This AI "teammate" handled tasks like reading out instructions, contributing to discussions, and overseeing time management. Interestingly, the AI wasn't fully automated- it was controlled behind the scenes by Hwang in what's known as a "Wizard of Oz" experiment, feeding dialogue generated by ChatGPT into the AI.
Following the experiment, the study's authors analyzed chat logs from team discussions to assess how frequently team members contributed ideas or arguments. Additionally, they collected participant feedback on their experiences.
The data revealed that when the AI teammate had a female voice, women who were the minority in their team participated more. While men in the minority were equally talkative, they were noticeably less task-focused when working alongside a male-voiced bot. Moreover, it was noted that women were more likely to perceive the AI teammate positively if they were in the minority.
These findings underline how merely the gendered voice of an AI agent can provide a modicum of support and encouragement to minority women in team situations. It's also noteworthy to highlight the fact that most participants didn't seem to favor a male or a female AI voice, indicating that perceptions towards AI can still influence behavior, even if people may not consciously consider them of any particular importance.
Disclaimer: The above article was written with the assistance of AI. The original sources can be found on ScienceDaily.
