Next month, experts in AI and Digital Technology from across the globe will be meeting in London to share their knowledge and insights on this live and important topic: Artificial Intelligence and the Home in the Digital Age.

Hosted by the Home Renaissance Foundation (HRF) and the Social Trends Institute (STI) this will be the first key international gathering to address questions about the nature and implications of AI in our homes.

The meeting brings together world-class expertise from fields of computational logic, digital economics, sociology, philosophy of science and architecture. The discussion promises to bring light to an area often ignored by academics and the media: the Home Front.

Much attention has been given to the effects of AI on individuals and on the workplace. Far less has been written or discussed on the implications on the new technologies on the life and work of the home. The home though is truly the front line for many of these developments. HRF has been ground-breaking in raising awareness of this. The home, common to us all, is often lost in plain sight. By channeling attention to the specific context of the home HRF intends to sharpen the focus of the AI debate.

Digital Home: Recognise the Threat and Realise the Promise, to be covered by Mei Lin Fung is a strong example of this focus. Mei Lin Fung is a technology pioneer working to ensure that technology works for humanity as the next 3.9 billion people come online. In 2015, she joined “father of the Internet,” Vint Cerf, to co-found the People-Centered Internet (PCI) which maintains a global network of “positive change agents” committed to ensuring that technology is developed with a “people-centered” focus – increasing access while ensuring equality, protecting the vulnerable, and prioritizing human wellbeing.

From the cutting edge of AI development, Francesca Toni will provide the meeting with a current survey of AI in the Home and Society at large. Francesca Toni is Professor in Computational Logic in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, where she is a member of the Artificial Intelligence research theme and the leader of the CLArg (Computational Logic and Argumentation) research group. She is also a member and co-leader of the AI@Imperial Network of Excellence.

Threats and Promises, Knowledge, Representation and Reasoning in Artificial Intelligence, just two of the discussions that will be taking place at the Royal Society of Medicine in London from 25 -26 February 2019. More details of sessions and contributors to The Home in The Digital Age next week.