Spektrum Iran

Abstract Humans anthropomorphize digital entities, such as Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), assigning them human-like physical traits, mental states, or social characteristics, including gender. GAI, as a sociotechnical actor, both reflects and shapes the society that produces it. Similarly, the intersections of GAI and gender are mutually co-constitutive. Gender is embedded, reproduced, enacted, materialized, and embodied in AI technologies. The current research explores anthropomorphism and the gendering of GAI from a social constructionist perspective, examining how individuals consciously and unconsciously adopt stereotypical gendered expectations when anthropomorphizing GAI. An embedded mixed-methods design was employed, with quantitative data nested within a predominantly basic qualitative research approach. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously via purposive and convenience sampling, and sixty-seven Iranian participants completed the online questionnaire. The study began with an autoethnographic vignette. The quantitative strand followed the logic of Q methodology, identifying distinguishing items by treating participants as variables in the analysis. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Over half of the participants did not assign a gender or name to GAI, while roughly half of the remaining participants assigned a variable gender (male, female, or genderless), the remainder attributed a fixed gender, which was predominantly male. Many participants did not anthropomorphize GAI, emphasizing its machinic nature, whereas other participants’ responses revealed that human-like attachments, gender assignments, naming practices, and the ways these anthropomorphic exercises are shaped by GAI use mirror broader cultural norms, indicating that perceived gender in GAI is socially enacted rather than intrinsic. Since emotional bonds with increasingly humanized GAI chatbots can lead to negative or positive outcomes, GAI literacy is necessary. Policymakers and educational institutions should devise initiatives to raise GAI literacy, and that GAI corporations adopt self-regulatory measures to protect users.