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DomesticAI

DomesticAI

About the Project

Significant efforts have been directed at understanding the implications of new technologies for the future of employment and training. In contrast, the future of unpaid domestic work has received little attention so far. DomesticAI is a major research project based at the University of Oxford that will

a) scope the potential of new gadgets and apps to free up time now locked into unpaid housework and care work

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b) assess how willing we are to introduce these technologies into our private lives. On this basis, we will identify risks regarding data privacy and social exclusion associated with the rapid outsourcing to smart technology of tasks carried out within the privacy of our homes.

Recent publications

First project research findings offering predictions about the transformative potential of domestic automation have been published in PLOS ONE as The future(s) of unpaid work: How susceptible do experts from different backgrounds think the domestic sphere is to automation and Technological Forecasting and Social Change as The future of unpaid work: Estimating the effects of automation on time spent on housework and care work in Japan and the UK.

Funders

This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.