WiCipedia: Fembots Create Gender Divide & Snap Tackles Culture Issues

We've discussed the role of fembots in the past, but now the government is getting involved. Mashable said that the United Nations is weighing in on personal AI assistants like Siri and Alexa, who, remarkably, are all female. In a recent report from the UN titled "I'd blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education," UN authors write, "Siri's 'female' obsequiousness -- and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women -- provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products, pervasive in the technology sector and apparent in digital skills education." (See WiCipedia: Are Fembots a Boon or Bane for WiT?)

Post divorce from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, many of us wondered what MacKenzie Bezos would do with all that moolah -- more than $36 billion, to be precise. Well, it turns out that the Amazon heiress is going to take the financially higher ground by donating more than half of it to various charities. No surprise -- her ex-husband isn't parting with any of it. "I have a disproportionate amount of money to share," MacKenzie said. "My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won't wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty." The giving frenzy was prompted by an initiative from Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates called the Giving Pledge, which asks disproportionately wealthy individuals to "donate at least half of their money either during their lifetimes or in their wills." So far they have gotten more than 200 super-rich people to sign on (though we won't hold our breath for Jeff). (See WiCipedia: Private Groups Tackle Membership Guidelines & the New Richest Woman in Tech.)

Nokia is the latest in the telecom world to adjust its pay scale for gender equality. Gadgets 360 explains that the Finland-based company issued raises to a portion of its female employees this summer, "part of the company's effort to close its gender pay gap." Nokia has a newly created goal of eliminating the pay gap between male and female employees who perform the same job, which means that women will mostly be getting equality raises, though there are reportedly a few men who are due pay hikes for this reason as well. Nokia reported that "the pay gaps they found were mostly small, but 'pretty widespread' with a higher likelihood of appearing among engineering and R&D staff." Chief Marketing Officer Barry French said that as soon as the higher ups found out about the pay discrepancy, they resolved to fix it. "It's a values thing," he said. (See Equal Pay Day: Time to Get Paychecks in Check.)

— Eryn Leavens, Special Features & Copy Editor, Light Reading