人工智能也有性別：Siri爲啥是女的？
If you ask Siri what gender it is, the iPhone 4S personal assistant doesn't give a clear answer. But many have assumed from its tone that Siri is female (in most countries anyway -- in France and the UK, Siri's voice is masculine).
如果你使用蘋果iPhone 4S的語音功能Siri，問它是男是女，它可能不會給你明確的答案。但是，通過Siri的音調來判斷，大多數人認爲它是女的（在大多數國家Siri用的是女聲，在法國和英國用的是男聲）。
From GPS devices to voicemail boxes, most computerized voices are female. The reason likely boils down to psychology.
從全球定位系統到語音信箱，大多數人工智能的聲音都是女聲，其中的原因可能要歸結於心理學。
Scientific studies have found that humans prefer the sound of a woman's voice to a man's. The preference begins at an early age too. Stanford University professor Clifford Nass cites a study in which fetuses react to their mother's voice, but not to other female voices or their father's voice.
科學研究發現，比起男聲，人們更喜歡女聲，而且這種偏好從嬰兒形成的時候就開始了。斯坦福大學教授克利福德·奈斯引用一項研究來說明，胎兒只對其母親的聲音做出反應，而不會對其他女性或者其父親的聲音做出反應。
Is there another possible reason for all of the female computer voices?
還有其他的原因來說明爲什麼人工智能都用女聲嗎？
Our history, says CNN's Brandon Griggs. "According to some sources, the use of female voices in navigation devices dates back to World War II, when women's voices were employed in airplane cockpits because they stood out among the male pilots. And telephone operators have traditionally been female, making people accustomed to getting assistance from a disembodied woman's voice."
CNN的布蘭登·格里格斯說，“這與歷史有關。根據資料顯示，最早在二戰的時候。飛機駕駛艙中的導航設備使用的就是女聲，因爲在男性飛行員中，女聲更能被辨識出來。而且，傳統上來說，電話接線員都是女性，這就讓人們習慣於從沒有實體的女性聲音那裏來獲得幫助。”
