It is hard to imagine a scenario in which artificial intelligence won’t play a significant role in our daily lives8. As the ability to collect and process data based on sensors, natural language and audio-video sources improves, so the pool of knowledge that informs artificially intelligent systems decisions will increase.
With an increasing amount of useful data, predictive algorithms, inference engines and deep learning networks will help smart home technology to contextualise its surroundings. Facial and voice recognition could immediately recognise various members of the household and provide informed responses to open-ended questions, as well as alter settings and trigger systems to create an ideal living environment without the need for any human interaction.
While limited artificial intelligence is already present in our homes – thanks to smart speakers from Amazon, Google, Apple and more – the social, legal and ethical questions that a fully AI-enabled home raises have yet to be meaningfully tackled. As such systems would be capable of making independent decisions on the behalf of a homeowner, scientific, technological and government bodies will need to create frameworks so this field develops in a responsible way that keeps systems secure and occupiers safe.
While suggesting that ‘Domesday scenarios [for AI] are overstated and highly unlikely’, Harvard Professor Barbara Grosz, chair of the AI100 Standing Committee, believes that the future development of artificial intelligence will see such systems being designed to work collaboratively with human partners9:
“Much of the science-fiction narrative […] are stories that are meant to replicate human intelligence. You might ask why would we want to do that? We know how to replicate human intelligence; we also know there are many limitations to human intelligence. So I think it’s much more productive to think about AI and the systems it develops as complementing human intelligence.”
The Smart Home of the Future White Paper looks into the following areas:
Click the links below to go to each section.
About the White Paper series
Designed and produced by Andrew Lucas, the Smart Home White Paper series explores several important aspects of the connected home and offers insight on how this exciting sector is evolving. Drawing heavily on the expertise of our award-winning smart home specialists Andrew Lucas London and our virtual reality division Andrew Lucas Studios, these White Paper publications offer a credible overview based on more than a decade of experience and knowledge of the above sectors.