Abstract
The domestic environment is a key area for the design and deployment of autonomous systems. Yet research indicates their adoption is already being hampered by a variety of critical issues including trust, privacy and security. This paper explores how potential users relate to the concept of autonomous systems in the home and elaborates further points of friction. Our methodology employs provocative scenarios of future autonomous systems in the home as a means of breaching the background expectancies people have about domestic life. Background expectancies are usually tacit and unspoken, taken for granted as it were, but have a powerful impact on the acceptability of autonomous systems and indeed technology more generally. Our results highlight the need to build computational as well as social accountability into autonomous systems, and to enable coordination and control.
Highlights
Progress in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning and ubiquitous computing is paving the way for a range of domestic systems capable of taking actions autonomously, largely based on input from sensor-based devices
Our attempt to elicit background expectancies impacting the adoption of autonomous systems in the home merges breaching experiments [10] with scenario-based design [12] and contra-vision [11] to create provocative visions of the home of the future that intentionally disturb common sense reasoning and create incongruities or Breality disjunctures^ whose repair surfaces taken for granted background expectancies that impact the uptake of future technologies in everyday life
– Participants were encouraged to reflect on and discuss what they saw. We initiated this stage by asking a broad question, such as Bwould you be willing to live in a smart home like the one depicted in our scenarios? If not, what would make it work for you?^ Participants were given leeway to comment and respond to each other’s thoughts and reflections, with occasional interruptions from us to ask additional probing questions around topics raised by participants
Summary
Progress in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning and ubiquitous computing is paving the way for a range of domestic systems capable of taking actions autonomously, largely based on input from sensor-based devices. Our analysis of workshop participants’ responses to the scenarios reveals background expectancies centring on computational accountability and the legibility of autonomous system behaviour, social accountability and the compliance of autonomous behaviours with social norms, coordination and the need to build the human into the behaviour of autonomous systems and control Each of these key topics is formed by and brings with it a range of ancillary expectations that impact the adoption of autonomous systems in the home and open up design possibilities to enable developers to gear autonomous domestic systems in with the non-technical expectations that govern their uptake in everyday life
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