Domestic AI and Emotional Involvement. Design Perspectives

The contribution addresses the current phenomenon of AI spreading in domestic environments but making no meaningful contribution to people’s life. The main purpose is to stimulate a conversation about the topic in the design community, trying to trigger critical reflections through the envisioning of – more or less – near future scenarios. Regarding the emotional sphere as a possible asset for the solution of the problem, the investigation starts from the field of psychology, translating some of the basic theories about (positive) emotions into scenarios where AI systems enhance houses, embodying these principles in an intentionally overstressed manner. Science Fiction Prototypes have been applied as research tools to build the scenarios and to infer critical points and interesting possibilities. The outcome of this work is a set of different envisioned futures that can be introduced in workshops and/or didactic activities to further advance the discussion.