The Future of Unpaid Work: AI's potential to transform unpaid domestic work in the UK and Japan
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Internet Institute
Abstract
The "Future of Work" has attracted much attention in recent years. Significant efforts are 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. This is although working-age adults in the UK spend about 56% of all paid and unpaid work time on household and care work; the figure for Japan is 38%. AI-powered technology replacing human labour in domestic tasks can potentially free up large amounts of time for men and women of all ages. It also has the potential to make the time spent on the domestic work that is hard to automate, or that people want to do themselves (e.g. interactive childcare or eldercare), more efficient and help consolidate it into fewer episodes. This project will bring unpaid domestic work into the discussion of AI and the future of labour and assess its implications in two socially and culturally quite distinct countries.
To do this we will consider multiple factors that will influence the diffusion of AI-powered time-saving domestic technology in three distinct Work Packages (WP). In WP1 we will first evaluate the technological likelihood of automatibility of domestic work tasks using a grid of around 50 such tasks identified in the UK Time Use Survey 2014-15, to which we will apply a modified version of the widely used Frey-Osborne approach to measuring automatibility. We will then use an expert panel to assess how quickly AI-powered domestic technologies will become not only technologically possible, but also affordable for households.
In WP2 we will address social factors affecting the adoption of intelligent machines at home. We will first analyse the case of shopping, commonly carried out offline or online with the help of AI-powered apps. UK and Japan are global leaders in e-commerce, making online shopping in these countries a good test case to analyse how performing a household task with AI-powered technology may differ from performing it without it. How does AI-powered technology affect daily time use and the rates of participation in the activity by different members of the household? We will then carry out an experimental vignette survey to evaluate the acceptability of outsourcing a range of domestic tasks to AI-powered technology. Our vignettes will describe a fictitious family situation in which a given domestic task is performed. Across the vignettes, we will randomly vary a number of core factors such as type of task, family income, who performs the task etc. The vignettes will be supplemented by survey questions asking how decisions to adopt domestic technology are made when family members disagree about it.
WP3 involves simulations of likely changes in unpaid work time for men and women of different ages using the methodology used in National Time Transfer Accounts (NTTAs). NTTAs use time use data to show how people of different age groups and gender produce and consume time spent for various kinds of unpaid work in households, estimating net time transfers between such groups on the national level. We will estimate future scenarios of domestic task automation and evaluate future time transfers across genders and between generations in UK and Japan factoring in expected population change and automation. We will rely on automatibility, affordability and acceptability scores developed in WP1 and WP2. We will also develop a scenario in which automation of domestic tasks will result in changes similar to those brought about by AI-powered shopping technology as analysed in WP2.
Our analysis will bring invisible domestic labour that today is largely performed by women into the "Future of Work" debate. It will enrich our understanding of how time, the scarcest resource we have, will be influenced by AI-powered technologies at home.
To do this we will consider multiple factors that will influence the diffusion of AI-powered time-saving domestic technology in three distinct Work Packages (WP). In WP1 we will first evaluate the technological likelihood of automatibility of domestic work tasks using a grid of around 50 such tasks identified in the UK Time Use Survey 2014-15, to which we will apply a modified version of the widely used Frey-Osborne approach to measuring automatibility. We will then use an expert panel to assess how quickly AI-powered domestic technologies will become not only technologically possible, but also affordable for households.
In WP2 we will address social factors affecting the adoption of intelligent machines at home. We will first analyse the case of shopping, commonly carried out offline or online with the help of AI-powered apps. UK and Japan are global leaders in e-commerce, making online shopping in these countries a good test case to analyse how performing a household task with AI-powered technology may differ from performing it without it. How does AI-powered technology affect daily time use and the rates of participation in the activity by different members of the household? We will then carry out an experimental vignette survey to evaluate the acceptability of outsourcing a range of domestic tasks to AI-powered technology. Our vignettes will describe a fictitious family situation in which a given domestic task is performed. Across the vignettes, we will randomly vary a number of core factors such as type of task, family income, who performs the task etc. The vignettes will be supplemented by survey questions asking how decisions to adopt domestic technology are made when family members disagree about it.
WP3 involves simulations of likely changes in unpaid work time for men and women of different ages using the methodology used in National Time Transfer Accounts (NTTAs). NTTAs use time use data to show how people of different age groups and gender produce and consume time spent for various kinds of unpaid work in households, estimating net time transfers between such groups on the national level. We will estimate future scenarios of domestic task automation and evaluate future time transfers across genders and between generations in UK and Japan factoring in expected population change and automation. We will rely on automatibility, affordability and acceptability scores developed in WP1 and WP2. We will also develop a scenario in which automation of domestic tasks will result in changes similar to those brought about by AI-powered shopping technology as analysed in WP2.
Our analysis will bring invisible domestic labour that today is largely performed by women into the "Future of Work" debate. It will enrich our understanding of how time, the scarcest resource we have, will be influenced by AI-powered technologies at home.
Planned Impact
Relying on AI-powered technology to replace or facilitate domestic work will reduce the amount of time spent engaged in domestic tasks, and it is anticipated that this will affect woman more than men, given the current gender inequality in the time invested in household tasks. On an individual level, changes in the patterns of domestic work participation may lead to improvements in an individual's quality of life. On the macro level, outsourcing domestic work to AI-powered technology may restart the stalled gender revolution in the domestic sphere, and alleviate the problems associated with ageing societies. This project aims to provide concrete predictions about the ways in which automation in the home will unfold.
We believe that our research has the potential to impact policy in the areas of labour regulation, social care and gender equality, and therefore is of interest to NGOs, research organisations and policy makers operating in these spheres. Technological innovation is initiated and designed by men, and marketing focus-groups are similarly male-dominated. Through the dissemination of our research we intend to make the female voice heard, especially as females are ordinarily the primary home-makers. Consequently, we anticipate that our research will lead to corporate practice change, particularly in the areas of product design, marketing and distribution.
Though our project team members are based in the UK and Japan, it is hoped that we will be able to extend the reach of our impact beyond these countries and into Europe, where Hertog and Lehdonvirta have collaborative networks of academics and research professionals, as well as contacts with regional NGOs. Hertog's and Lehdonvirta's contacts within the European Commission and the International Labour Organization may be open to receiving presentations and this may pave the way for more widespread dissemination activities throughout Northern Europe. Nagase and Hertog also have extensive contacts with academics, policy-makers, and research think-tanks in East Asia, and therefore there are impact possibilities therein also.
Finally, our findings have the potential to impact the product strategies and research outlook of AI and technology companies by highlighting the impact of economic and social factors on domestic AI adoption.
Our pathways to impact are explained in attached documentation, but in summary we intend to:
- Create an impact focus group comprised of gender-balanced corporate, policy and domestic actors, to advise on the execution of impact activities, help direct the tone of policy brief materials, and to act as a sounding board for proposed pathway activities.
- We will run a number of workshops with NGOs, policy-makers, research organisations and corporate representatives to disseminate our research. These workshops will have evaluation measures built into their composition (see pathways attachment for details).
- Table-top workshop events will be held with local pre-university students, with female students particularly targeted, to instil career aspirations in STEM fields and raise awareness of gender-based technology issues.
- Engage with social media and press to raise awareness of findings and issues to general, non-specialist audiences.
We believe that our research has the potential to impact policy in the areas of labour regulation, social care and gender equality, and therefore is of interest to NGOs, research organisations and policy makers operating in these spheres. Technological innovation is initiated and designed by men, and marketing focus-groups are similarly male-dominated. Through the dissemination of our research we intend to make the female voice heard, especially as females are ordinarily the primary home-makers. Consequently, we anticipate that our research will lead to corporate practice change, particularly in the areas of product design, marketing and distribution.
Though our project team members are based in the UK and Japan, it is hoped that we will be able to extend the reach of our impact beyond these countries and into Europe, where Hertog and Lehdonvirta have collaborative networks of academics and research professionals, as well as contacts with regional NGOs. Hertog's and Lehdonvirta's contacts within the European Commission and the International Labour Organization may be open to receiving presentations and this may pave the way for more widespread dissemination activities throughout Northern Europe. Nagase and Hertog also have extensive contacts with academics, policy-makers, and research think-tanks in East Asia, and therefore there are impact possibilities therein also.
Finally, our findings have the potential to impact the product strategies and research outlook of AI and technology companies by highlighting the impact of economic and social factors on domestic AI adoption.
Our pathways to impact are explained in attached documentation, but in summary we intend to:
- Create an impact focus group comprised of gender-balanced corporate, policy and domestic actors, to advise on the execution of impact activities, help direct the tone of policy brief materials, and to act as a sounding board for proposed pathway activities.
- We will run a number of workshops with NGOs, policy-makers, research organisations and corporate representatives to disseminate our research. These workshops will have evaluation measures built into their composition (see pathways attachment for details).
- Table-top workshop events will be held with local pre-university students, with female students particularly targeted, to instil career aspirations in STEM fields and raise awareness of gender-based technology issues.
- Engage with social media and press to raise awareness of findings and issues to general, non-specialist audiences.
Publications
Fetterolf E
(2023)
It's not her fault: Trust through anthropomorphism among young adult Amazon Alexa users
in Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
Hertog E
(2023)
The future of unpaid work: Estimating the effects of automation on time spent on housework and care work in Japan and the UK
in Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Lehdonvirta V
(2023)
The future(s) of unpaid work: How susceptible do experts from different backgrounds think the domestic sphere is to automation?
in PloS one
Lehdonvirta V
(2022)
The future(s) of unpaid work: How susceptible do experts from different backgrounds think the domestic sphere is to automation
in SSRN Electronic Journal
Molina T
(2022)
Female Labor Market Opportunities and Gender Gaps in Aspirations
in SSRN Electronic Journal
| Description | The first publications coming out from the project achieve a couple of things. First, we broaden the contemporary conversation around the future of work to include unpaid work in the domestic sphere, offering a corrective to the tendency of analyses to exclude forms of work that women do. Second, we develop for the first time estimates for the likelihood of domestic automation as well as an indicative price for such new technologies. We provide some indication of possible social changes that could result from domestic automation, in particular, its potential to reduce gender inequality in domestic work. Finally, we demonstrate how expert opinion is socially contingent and outline a more sociological approach to future making that acknowledges this contingency without dismissing forecasting as a methodology entirely. Our findings have been reported at seven academic meetings. These papers were accepted in 2 prestigious peer reviewed academic journals: PLOS One and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. The PLOS One paper was published on February the 22nd and since then has been viewed more than 5000 times and downloaded more than 600 times from the PLOS One website. We summarised our thoughts on domestic automation and why it is important to study this in a blog post published by the British Academy and in a press release widely taken by the media and in a number of media interviews. Our second paper accepted in Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently in the production stage. |
| Exploitation Route | Our research has the potential to impact policy in the areas of labour regulation, social care and gender equality, and therefore is of interest to NGOs, research organisations, and policy makers operating in these spheres. Technological innovation tends to be initiated and designed by men, and marketing focus-groups are similarly male-dominated. Through the dissemination of our research, we intend to make the female voice heard, especially as women are ordinarily the primary homemakers. Consequently, we anticipate that our research will lead to corporate practice change, particularly in the areas of product design, marketing, and distribution. Our research also brings attention to the societal consequences of domestic automation and to the importance of developing tech responsibly in this sphere.Through dissemination of our key findings and direct engagement with industry players and the public we hope to initiate discussions about it and to influence the opinions of key stakeholders in this discussions. Academics have started engaging with our findings about domestic automation and developing this field. Presenting our research findings has resulted in a number of research teams globally approaching us with a view to develop research projects building on our key findings to date. We have also been approached by some companies, particularly developing technologies to support eldercare exposing interest in our research findings. We hope that our finding that expert opinions are socially contingent will influence future forecasting exercises, making them more reflexive and incorporating the knowledge and experiences of more diverse boards. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | In the preceding year we have published several papers from the project and have engaged in a number of engagement and impact activities. Engagement activities to date include: 1. Academic. We have reached out to an interdisciplinary academic audience across Europe, US, East Asia, and have presented our work following academic conferences, seminars, and workshops. To list just a few: WFRN annual meeting 2022; Tokyo University Centre for Contemporary Japanese Studies seminar series; SASE annual conference 2021, 2022; Platform Economic Interest Group (Oxford University); Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research seminar, Umeå University in Sweden; Research on East Asian Demography and Inequality (Princeton University); Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung seminar series in Cologne; Western Economic Association International Conference, US. 2. Public. A press release sent out in February 2023 about the findings published in "The future(s) of unpaid work: How susceptible do experts from different backgrounds think the domestic sphere is to automation?" (PLOS One) generated coverage in 225 media outlets worldwide, with the research featured in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Express and The Evening Standard. The paper's top line was that around 39% of the time spent on housework and caring could be automated within a decade. BBC Radio interviews with Prof. Hertog were played nationally via regional stations, and Twitter posts about the research had nearly 38,000 impressions in the first 48 hours of release. We have also engaged with the public directly through public outreach activities, such as Ashmolean museum's "Tokyo Nights" event (audience of 100); interactions with Youth Advisory Board for the social sciences division at Oxford University (secondary school children from several schools in Oxfordshire area), and with Oxford AI Network (a network of start up and industry members largely based in Oxford and in London). 4. Practitioner. We reached out to practitioners and policy-makers through the following presentations: • PI Ekaterina Hertog and postdoctoral researcher Dr Lulu Shi submitted written evidence to the parliamentary enquiry into Connected Technologies. Dr Lulu Shi has then given follow up oral evidence to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. • PI Ekaterina Hertog participated in an open panel debate on "Working well with artificial intelligence". The panel included policymakers, trade unionists and company representatives. • Ekaterina Hertog, Nobuko Nagase, and Setsuya Fukuda presented findings in an open event at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation to a mixed audience including several technology developers. We expect impacts to start emerging from these (and additional) engagement activities. As we record and reflect on them, we will feed back our learning from these activities into our further engagement plans. |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Written and oral evidence to DCMS Committee at House of Commons |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | Based on our evidence, the committee will write an report, which will be sent and reviewed by the government. The hope is to establish a safer regulatory framework for digital safety. |
| URL | https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/378/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/172142... |
| Description | COVID-19 Rebuilding Research Momentum Fund |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | John Fell OUP fund |
| Amount | £9,835 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | CYD00190 |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2021 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | Joint Usage and Research Center programs at IER Funding |
| Amount | ￥600,000 (JPY) |
| Organisation | Hitotsubashi University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Japan |
| Start | 04/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | PER Seed Fund, Social Sciences Division |
| Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 06/2022 |
| Description | The Digital Teacher - Understanding the Agenda of Edtech |
| Amount | £9,960 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2021 |
| End | 08/2022 |
| Title | Domestic Artificial Intelligence Delphi Survey, 2020-2021 |
| Description | A main aim of the study was understand how experts predict the automation of unpaid domestic work. To do so, we conducted a Delphi survey with technology experts in the UK and Japan. The data set includes answers collected from a forecasting exercise in which 65 AI experts from the UK (29 respondents) and Japan (36 respondents) were asked to estimate how automatable 17 housework and care work tasks are in the next 5 to 10 years. The experts were also asked to estimate the cost of the automations. In addition, background information, such as the experts' gender, age and field of expertise, were collected. Based on the respondents answers, the Delphi survey shows that on average 27% of time that people currently spend on doing unpaid domestic work could be automated in the next 5 years, and 39% in the next 10 years. This project brings unpaid domestic work into the discussion of AI and the future of labour and predicts the degree of automation of unpaid work in two distinct countries - the UK and Japan. To do this we evaluate the technological likelihood of automatibility of domestic work tasks using a grid of 17 such tasks identified in the UK Time Use Survey 2014-15 and the Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities 2016. We use a panel consisting of technology experts to assess how quickly AI-powered domestic technologies will become not only technologically possible but also affordable for households. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The data has so far resulted in one peer reviewed paper publication, as well as several academic conferences, talks to the general public, and around 250 news articles. There are several academic papers in the pipeline using this data set. |
| URL | https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=855342 |
| Description | Collaboration with a research team led by Professor Nagase from Ochanomizu University, Japan |
| Organisation | Ochanomizu University |
| Country | Japan |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As part of the "Future of unpaid work" project I am designing 2 surveys to measure the likelihood of automation of a variety of unpaid work tasks and the acceptability of automated solutions to domestic work tasks to private individuals. My team has led the expert survey design measuring automability of unpaid domestic work for the whole project and we fielded the expert survey in the UK and in Japan. My team also collaborated on the vignette survey design to measure acceptability of domestic work tasks in the UK. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Japanese team will field the expert survey in Japan. The Japanese team also collaborated substantially on the vignette survey design. the survey will measure acceptability of domestic work tasks in the UK and in Japan. |
| Impact | Both surveys as well as planned publications have been unavoidably delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The expert survey has just been fielded in the UK and we will field the vignette survey in the next few months. The collaboration is ongoing until at least 2023 and we expect to be able to record significant outputs by the end of 2021. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Hitachi Foundation AI ICT Technology and Future of Unpaid Work |
| Organisation | Ochanomizu University |
| Country | Japan |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We will further our analysis concerning AI, ICT Technology and Future of Unpaid Work by adding qualitative methods. Dr. Ekaterina Hertog and Dr. Yuji Ohta is my collaborator. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr. Ekaterina Hertog is adding international comparative view. Dr. Yuji Ohta is providing Engineering and Science aspects. |
| Impact | Multi-disciplinary, Economics, Sociology, and Engineering. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Public discourse on educational technology beyond the pandemic - a media analysis |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Department of Education |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The project is a collaboration with Prof Rebecca Eynon at the Department of Education at Oxford University and Dr Lulu P. Shi at the Sociology Department at Oxford University. The study evaluates the public discourse on educational technology (EdTech) and how it has been shifting after the extensive implementation of EdTech since the nation-wide school closures in early 2020. Lulu Shi has contributed to defining the research questions, the sampling strategy, and the coding framework. Connecting to her work in DomesticAI, which investigates the future of unpaid domestic work, this project specifically focuses on technology and teaching children - a major part of unpaid domestic labour. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Rebecca Eynon is a leading education researcher with an expertise on digital education. She leads the team and has contributed to defining the project's roadmap, the choice of sampling and analytical methodology. |
| Impact | At the end of the project, the findings will be published in a peer-reviewed paper in an internationally renowned journal. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | 2021 - SASE Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We presented a paper "The Future of Unpaid Work: Simulating the Effects of Automation on Time Spent on Housework and Care Work in the UK and Japan" to an interdisciplinary audience of academics interested in digital sociology, the future of work, household inequality. So far no research has focused directly on the transformative power automation could have on unpaid domestic work. Several members of the audience mentioned that this presentation was the first to bring their attention to the importance to include unpaid domestic work in the debates about automation and the future of work. We received several requests for further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://sase.org/event/2021-sase-conference/ |
| Description | A talk or presentation - 2021 - SASE Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We presented the first results from our expert survey aimed at gauging the likelihood of automation of different domestic work tasks in the near future. In this activity, we for the first time described methodology behind the automatability of unpaid work tasks scores database we are developing. We received several expressions of interest in our approach and in the automatability scores themselves. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://sase.org/event/2021-sase-conference/ |
| Description | Contributed to an expert panel discussion on AI and Disenfrachisement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A virtual roundtable discussion on AI and the Future of Work, focusing on AI and the disenfranchised. The project led by BA and UCL seeks to address critical questions for policy, business, practitioners and society on the ways in which AI could and should impact on the future quality and equity of work. The aim of the project is to broaden the debate surrounding the interactions of AI and work including on equality in work assessing the impacts at a range of scales (both geographically and across industry sectors), understanding different ways in which people can experience disenfranchisement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Dr Lulu Shi presented at the B'AI Global Forum, Tokyo University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lulu Shi presented the DomesticAI project in front of a hybrid audience from Japan and the UK. The audience included academics as well as researchers from the industry, who are interested on the social implications of our findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://baiforum.jp/events/en033/ |
| Description | Gave an interview as part of the series of talks organised by UCL on the Future of Work |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Ekaterina Hertog gave an interview as part of the series of interviews organised by UCL in partnership with British Academy on the Future of Unpaid work. The project has a particular focus on on AI and the disenfranchised as work is reshaped. The interview highlighted the importance of unpaid domestic work in this context and Ekaterina received an invitation to participate in the forthcoming "AI and the Future of Work Roundtable discussions" (Scheduled for September 2021) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Interview by the Cabinet Office, Japan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Interview by the Japanese Cabinet Office with Emiko Usui on "Utilizing well-being measures in formulating policy", Economic & Social Research, ESR No. 39, 2023, Winter. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.esri.cao.go.jp/jp/esri/esr/data/esr_039.pdf |
| Description | Invited as a commentator for a talk on AI and (paid) work automation with Daron Acemoglu |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited as a commentator for a talk on AI and (paid) work automation with Daron Acemoglu. This had a huge reach beyond the team's immediate network, as Daron is an academic superstar, and the team were able to add a consideration of the importance of thinking about DOMESTIC unpaid work automation, in the general debate about work automation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk/event/ethics-ai-colloquium-economic-impact-ai-live-online-event |
| Description | Lecture by Ekaterina Hertog, University of Oxford |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Lecture by Ekaterina Hertog on "It's Not Her Fault: Trust through Anthropomorphism among Young Adult Amazon Alexa Users" invited speaker, Oxford University, Oxford Internet Institute annual lecture. Audience: academics, graduate students. Audience 50-100 people. May 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Organised and chaired a panel on the "Future of Unpaid Work", WFRN annual meeting. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Ekaterina Hertog organised and chaired a panel on the "Future of Unpaid Work" WFRN annual meeting. Audience: academics, students, policy-makers. Audience 20-30 people, June 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Participated as one of the 7 panelists in a public debate on Working well with artificial intelligence |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The activity involved a panel discussion on AI, work and people. The panelists discussed how is AI shaping new ways of working for different groups of people, and how do some people benefit from this change while others bear more risk? How have AI innovations shaped, and been shaped by, changes to work prompted by the pandemic? The panel will consider the relationship between AI and inequality, how digital inequalities intersect with other social and structural inequalities, and the importance of inclusivity in wider debates around AI and work. This event is part of a collaboration between UCL and the British Academy on AI and the future of work, which seeks to address critical questions for policy, business, practitioners and society on the ways in which AI could and should impact on the future quality and equity of work in the UK. In the end the UCL and the British Academy will produce a series of briefings based on the panel discussion. these briefings are meant to inform policy-makers and industry practitioners on the key considerations when developing regulation to ensure "good" jobs just as smart technologies are increasingly integrated in the work places. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.tickettailor.com/events/publicpolicy/587959 |
| Description | Participation in Ashmolean Museum's "Tokyo Nights" public engagement event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A talk given on "The Future of Unpaid Work as imagined by Japanese experts" as part of the Ashmolean Museum's public engagement evening "Tokyo Nights". Talk abstract: The "future of work" has been a hot public policy discussion topic in recent years. A 2013 working paper by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne predicted that "about 47 percent of total US employment is at risk" from automation. Significant research efforts are made to imagine the world where robots have taken away many of our jobs, potential problems associated with such social change and possible solutions for them. This field, however, ignores the work we do at home and without pay. Work that takes substantial amounts of our time and yet so far remained largely invisible for researchers considering the social consequences of the rise of automation. As Robert A. Heinlein's fictional inventor points out in The Door into Summer, "amazingly little real thought had been given to housework, even though it is at least 50 percent of all work in the world" when he sets about designing robots to free housewives from their labours. Thus, Heinlein's 1957 novel not only predicted the Roomba ("It went quietly looking for dirt all day long, in search curves that could miss nothing, passing over clean floors in its endless search for dirty floors.") but also how little attention researchers would give to automation of work in the domestic sphere. In this presentation, we will broaden the conversation about the future of work to unpaid work, such as cooking, childcare, and caring for the elderly. Drawing methodological inspiration from the "Future of Work" literature, we ask a panel of Japanese "AI experts" to assess the future automatability of 17 categories of unpaid work. We will present their answers and some comments on what motivated their predictions. We also ran a quiz the whole evening based on one of our papers. We have a paper that shows how UK and Japanese experts predict domestic automation. In the quiz we offered Ashmolean visitors to predict the likelihood of automation of at least 2 domestic tasks and then they could compare their guesses with what the Japanese experts predicted. We made the quiz ran online, so people could use a QR code to access it with their mobile phones. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/article/japan-after-hours |
| Description | Presentation at "Quiet Emergency" Declining Birthrate and Gender Equality" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "Rethinking the environment for having children" at "Quiet Emergency" Declining Birthrate and Gender Equality, Part 2: "Ideal Child-rearing Support for Diverse Families", 62nd ESRI-Policy Forum Series, Cabinet Office (2022.11.2) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Conference on Reforming capitalism, doing Digital and going green: Does Japan hold answers? hosted by Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Saïd Business School, Oxford University and the Embassy of Japan in UK, held on Feb 17th 2023 at Saïd Business School, Oxford University. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "The Role of Digital Transformation on the Futures of Unpaid Work," at Conference on Reforming capitalism, doing Digital and going green: Does Japan hold answers? hosted by Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Saïd Business School, Oxford University and the Embassy of Japan in UK, held on Feb 17th 2023 at Saïd Business School, Oxford University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation at Harvard University CGIS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Domestic Work" at the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations seminar with Mary Brinton as moderator, Harvard University CGIS(2022.10.31) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Japan Press Club conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "Is having a child a risk?" at Japan Press Club conference 2nd round of social security for all generation, Japan National Press Club (2022.9.12) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at MIT Sloan School of Management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Domestic Work" at IWER, Research Seminar Series, MIT Sloan School of Management (2022.10.18) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Ochanomizu University Gendered Innovation Industry-Academia Collaborative Exchange Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "Technology such as AI and the Future of Work Styles / The Future of Unpaid Labor" at Ochanomizu University Gendered Innovation Industry-Academia Collaborative Exchange Meeting, Ochanomizu University International Exchange Center (2022.9.16) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Rikiya Matsukura and Setsuya Fukuda on "A Prescription for Population Aging: New Policy Perspectives Using NTA," at For Every Age: Intergenerational Economy: Dialogue with Asian Parliamentarians. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Asian Population and Development Association (APDA). Bangkok, Thailand. (2022.10.11) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at the 2022 WFRN (Work-Family Researchers Network) Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Setsuya Fukuda and Rikiya Matsukura on "Intergenerational Transfer of Care Work: How Technology would Meet with Future Care Demand in Japan and the UK?" at the 2022 WFRN (Work-Family Researchers Network) Conference (2022.6.24) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at the 34th Annual SASE (Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics) Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Setsuya Fukuda and Rikiya Matsukura on "Intergenerational Transfer of Care Work: How Technology would Meet with Future Care Demand in Japan and the UK?" at The 34th Annual SASE (Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics) Meeting (2022.7.10) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at the German Institute of Japan (DIJ) in Tokyo by Dr Lulu Shi and Prof Nobuko Nagase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lulu Shi and Prof Nobuko Nagase presented at the DIJ in front of a hybrid audience from Japan and the UK. Shi and Nagase presented methodologies used in DomesticAI and discussed the results from the Delphi survey. The talk had a methodological focus. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.dijtokyo.org/event/using-delphi-survey-to-predict-how-technology-may-transform-unpaid-do... |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog at CFPR, National University of Singapore |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "Who Wants a 'Smart Wife'? Gender and Educational Differences in Willingness to Use Technology for Domestic Work Across Europe" invited speaker, CFPR, National University of Singapore. Audience: academics and grad students. Audience around 20 people in East Asia. As a result Hertog was approached by two academics (one from Hong Kong and one from Singapore to develop a project together on unpaid domestic work automation). January 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog at LabFam research group seminar series, Warsaw University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "Who Wants a 'Smart Wife'? Gender and Educational Differences in Willingness to Use Technology for Domestic Work Across Europe", invited speaker, Warsaw University, LabFam research group seminar series. February 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog at the Gender Care Hub, University of Oxford |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "Gender, Care, and Technology in the coming decades" invited speaker, Gender Care Hub, University of Oxford. Audience: academics and grad students. The point here is to present ideas to an audience of interested scholars with the view of developing grant applications / field together. Audience 20-30 people. 2023 January. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog to Ethics in AI Institute seminar series, University of Oxford |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "It's Not Her Fault: Trust through Anthropomorphism among Young Adult Amazon Alexa Users" invited speaker, Oxford University, Ethics in AI Institute seminar series. Very interdisciplinary audience of academics, graduate students, industry reps. Audience 20-50 people. April 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog to SASE annual meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "Who Wants a 'Smart Wife'? Gender and Educational Differences in Willingness to Use Technology for Domestic Work Across Europe", SASE annual meeting, July 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog to WFRN annual meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "Perspectives on the future: Combining work and family care in 2030" WFRN annual meeting. Audience: academics, students, policy-makers, NGO reps. Audience 50-60 people. June 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog to WFRN annual meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Ekaterina Hertog on "Who Wants a 'Smart Wife'? Gender and Educational Differences in Willingness to Use Technology for Domestic Work Across Europe" WFRN annual meeting. Audience: academics, students, policy-makers. Audience 20-30 people. June 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation to ANU Japan Institute Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Setsuya Fukuda and Rikiya Matsukura on "The Future Demand-Supply Gaps in Unpaid Work in Japan and the UK: How Much Technology Do We Need?" at ANU Japan Institute Seminar (2022.11.9) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation to Building Sustainable Generational Economies: The 14th Global Meeting of the NTA Network, University of Paris - Dauphine (2023.2.15) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Matsukura, Rikiya and Setsuya Fukuda on "Shall We Be Released from Housework?: The Economic Impact of Automation in Unpaid Work" at Building Sustainable Generational Economies: The 14th Global Meeting of the NTA Network, University of Paris - Dauphine (2023.2.15) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation to Building Sustainable Generational Economies: The 14th Global Meeting of the NTA Network, University of Paris - Dauphine (2023.2.15) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Fukuda, Setsuya and Rikiya Matsukura on "The Future Demand-Supply Gap in Unpaid Work in Japan and the UK: How Population Ageing Affects Intergenerational Transfers of Unpaid Work?" to Building Sustainable Generational Economies: The 14th Global Meeting of the NTA Network, University of Paris - Dauphine (2023.2.15) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation to Gender Equality Bureau Planning Execution/Monitoring Expert Committee (20th) (2022.12.22) Online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Nobuko Nagase on "The Future of Japan's Family and Employment Social Protection" to the Gender Equality Bureau Planning Execution/Monitoring Expert Committee (20th) (2022.12.22) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.gender.go.jp/kaigi/senmon/keikaku_kanshi/siryo/pdf/ka20-4.pdf |
| Description | Presentation to NWEC Forum 2022, Workshop No. 40, "Toward gender equality in the era of digitalization", held online on the 19th Dec. 2022. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Fukuda, Setsuya on "The Present and Future of Unpaid Work in Japan: Do we have enough people for housework, childcare and elderly care?" to NWEC Forum 2022, Workshop No. 40, "Toward gender equality in the era of digitalization", held online on the 19th Dec. 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation to the Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation by Emiko Usui on "Work-life Balance, Well-being, and Productivity with Remote Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan" at The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.jil.go.jp/event/ro_forum/20220303/index.html |
| Description | Press release |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A press release sent out in February 2023 about the findings published in "The future(s) of unpaid work: How susceptible do experts from different backgrounds think the domestic sphere is to automation?" (PLOS One) generated coverage in 225 media outlets worldwide, with the research featured in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Express and The Evening Standard. The paper's top line was that around 39% of the time spent on housework and caring could be automated within a decade. BBC Radio interviews with Prof. Hertog were played nationally via regional stations, and Twitter posts about the research had nearly 38,000 impressions in the first 48 hours of release. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/news/40-of-time-spent-on-chores-could-be-automated-within-10-ye... |
| Description | Research covered in the morning edition of The Nikkei (newspaper) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Running in the morning edition of The Nikkei (newspaper), the Nikkei "Economics Classroom" is a column where economists clearly explain economic phenomena, introducing domestic and international papers and data from an academic perspective. Research was covered by Emiko Usui and Miho Matsushita on "Work after COVID: Utilizing well-being measures in formulating policy". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Short Speech at the Science Council of Japan, International Conference on Science and Technology for Sustainability |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Short speech and discussion at the International Conference on Science and Technology for Sustainability 2020 -Social Inclusion in the Global Era-Sustainable Post-COVID-19 Society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.scj.go.jp/ja/int/kaisai/jizoku2020/index.html |
| Description | Talk by Dr Lulu Shi at Hitotsubashi University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lulu Shi was invited by Prof Emiko Usui to give a talk about digitisation of education at Hitotsubashi University on the 4th Nov 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/Japanese/schedule/ongoing/cis/ |
| Description | The future of unpaid work: Simulating the effects of automation on time spent on housework and care work in the UK and Japan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was an invited talk at Tokyo University. The intended purpose was to reach out to Japanese colleagues, students and policy-makers and put the field of domestic automation on their mental maps. So far studies of automation largely focused on paid work with scholars trying to predict the extent of imminent automation of occupation and resulting job destruction as well as propose potential possible solutions. however, unpaid work is also work and it tends to be rather time consuming. It is also shared unevenly (with women doing more unpaid work than men for example). one's unpaid work load also has serious consequences for one's ability to work, health and well-being. thus, bringing automation in our discussions of unpaid work is crucial. I had 60 people in the audience according to the organisers. About 10 people contacted me after the talk mentioning how they enjoyed the talk and found the topic striking and were now interested to know more. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | UN workshop on the use of digital technology at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lulu Shi organised a Workshop at the UN to discuss the risks and benefits of using digital technologies for educational purposes and to develop concrete regulatory guidelines. The 2h session includes several presentations from EdTech firms, policy makers, academics, and schools, as well as a panel round, and open discussion with the audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2023/Agenda |
| Description | Video aimed at secondary school children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The study team ran a Youth Advisory Board Workshop at Oxford University on the 5th of April 2022 to collect ideas and to understand what young people are interested in and what kind of questions they have in regard to technology and unpaid domestic work. Twelve A-level students from different schools in Oxfordshire participated in the workshop. We then repeatedly engaged with these group of young people as we were designing the scripts for our films. We also discussed our first drafts with the Youth Advisory Board and implemented some changes based on their feedback to the final films. The short film aimed at schools has already been picked up by Wadham College's access team to be used regularly as part of their school-facing events in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://domesticai.oii.ox.ac.uk/what-are-the-potentials-and-risks-of-using-ai-at-home/ |