Ikea and AI: Do you speak human?

Ikea wants to know your feelings about technology – specifically AI. Do you prefer talking to a machine, or should it be more human-like? Should our technology go through a mid-life crisis? Should technology tell us how to become better people?

“One day soon, we might talk to our devices the way we talk to our friends. And the devices will talk back. This fundamentally changes our relationship with technology and opens up for some very important questions,” the site read.

Questions like ‘What gender should your AI be?’, ‘Should your AI reflect your values and worldview?’, ‘Should your AI be able to detect and react to emotions?’ and ‘Should your AI prevent you from making mistakes?’. Heavy stuff.

SPACE10, described as Ikea’s external future living lab, said it is “curious” to learn exactly how people feel about Artificial Intelligence. Do You Speak Human? was launched as a result of this curiosity, a worldwide survey “encouraging people to share how they would like their future AI to be”.

Do You Speak Human?

It calls the project “playful research” and said “the idea is to listen to people, open up the design process and take people’s wishes, concerns and aspirations into account before even deciding how this topic should be explored further.”

The results of the study are continually updated on the site, and show some pretty interesting info already.