Speculating Voice Assistant Futures

Although voice assistants (VAs) are increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives, we still have little idea of how to coexist with them. Beyond the basic functions we’re all familiar with, what other benefits can the technology bring to our lives? Mike Shorter and Aysun Aytaç's recent research has shown that feeling a loss of control and lack of trust towards such devices is limiting our acceptance and use of VAs.

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As interaction designers, how can we (re)define and design our interaction with VAs to build the trust that will enable us to be more comfortable with them? Might a decentralized future for voice assistants be the key to acceptance and confidence?

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Join this speculative design workshop exploring the issue of (mis)trust and confidence in voice assistants. Through planned exercises with Mike and Aysun, speculate, debate about and sketch out ideas for the types of future we want with voice assistants. What ethical, political, economic, environmental and social effects might these devices have in store for us?

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