Comment by chicob

What strikes me as odd is the objective of making the interface more human-like in some dimensions but less in others. Like you say, no one's talking to a human, but a thing. Users should be aware of that whichever the case.

And I should add that the onus of not perpetuating vicious stereotypes should fall on the shoulders of the users, not the designers. It seems to me that the idea of ever needing a genderless voice assumes that people are the passive victims of some evil ether that permeates their demeanour.

This is not to say that the project is not interesting - trying to capture the essences of human speech is quite a noble endeavour in itself, and it makes us more in touch with who we are.