“Why Sexy Robots Are Taking Over the Internet” (Internetting Season 2) -- The New York Times, 2018, 4:07 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEtZcs1yj3M

Why are most robots and digital assistants feminine? The argument here is that their male creators have a fantasy about being able to control women, so they make their machines resemble (sexualized) female forms. We also learn how gendered robots do different tasks in popular culture. “Male robots” get to do all sorts of fun things, like building stuff and killing bad guys, whereas “female robots” are there to look pretty and to help us buy junk from Amazon. More disturbing is the trend where real women are starting to mimic the servile nature of the fem bots. Donna Haraway’s work is plugged here too.

From the video’s description: From digital helpmates like Siri to computer-generated models like Lil Miquela, feminized tech is all around us. Are actual human women starting to look a little bit unreal?