How we will share our lives with technology
ON/OFF RELATIONSHIP
„Hi there, how can I simplify your life today?“ We turn to AI with prompts, tasks and requests for analyses, hoping for recommendations, ideas and answers in return. But if we hand over more and more competences to our new assistants, will this really simplify our everyday lives in the long term?
New kinds of roommates and co-workers are moving into our lives: chatbots and robots are being designed to increasingly resemble us, interact and work more closely with us. And as machines become more like us, we, in turn, are moving closer to machines. We augment our bodies with wearables, implants and prostheses and integrate machines into our private and professional routines. We ask artificial intelligence for advice, communicate emotionally and rely on it as an assistant at work. These technologies promise to make our lives easier and to work in our benefit. Nevertheless, a sense of unease remains, as the question inevitably arises as to who will have control of our data and our sense of self.
The technological advances of recent years are transforming the way we interact with machines. How will our social lives change in the presence of increasingly intelligent systems? What do intelligence and consciousness mean in the context of machines? Who can take advantage of these technologies and who is left behind? What interests and ideologies are driving their development? And how do we shape technology responsibly and ethically?
Futurium’s new thematic focus explores how we can shape the relationship between humans and machines in response to these pressing questions. Together, we want to imagine, rethink and discuss how we want to live and work with technology in the future – where to keep it ON, and where to switch it OFF.