Title: The Hearth of Technology: How AI and Digital Innovations Warm Up Our Homes

As the world marches into a full-blown digital age, home is no longer just a mere structure, but extends to our virtual and technological spaces, too. Throughout my decade on the internet, I have witnessed wall after wall of change streaming through the doors of digital development. Now, as the world is changing, going fast, more interconnected than ever, I find myself looking out on the seas of progress and wondering at the sheer audacity of innovation and visuals. Behold, coming soon, Nvidia’s G-Assist AI chatbot, an AI that’ll take up residence in your consoles to assist with decision-making (imagine having a smart GCHQ agent inside your Scrabble app, advising you on how to play your best words). There’s Techmeme, the world’s premier news platform for serving up tech news along with a healthy dose of reverential awe. Let us begin. Come congregate, my Internet brethren, and let us embark on a surveying journey of things tech through the most recent lens, the newest glass, in order to discern what goes into making a smart home. I would first like to subtly assert that home is not simply a physical place of residence, but also a dwelling in the virtual and technological spaces, too.

NURTURING THE NEXUS OF GAMING AND HOME

Nvidia recently announced that it has begun testing an AI chatbot called G-Assist on its GeForce NOW cloud gaming service, signalling its intent to merge our talking to a screen with playing video games so seamlessly that the transition is barely perceptible. Nvidia aspires to make gaming a purely homebound activity by making your PC play itself for you – a bot-assisted experience that allows you to kick back on the couch with a controller and not have to move ever again. Never mind the ‘assistance’, once Nvidia’s algorithm is up and running, the screen and controller parts of the experience could disappear entirely.

TECHMEME: THE PULSE OF HOME TECHNOLOGY NEWS

The pace of technological development is accelerating, and staying on top of it all is a full-time job. That’s why your home should be your hub for all the latest news about everything tech with Techmeme literally right at hand – Techmeme News giving you all you need to know to dominate the office gossip scene and stay ahead of the competition, and the Techmeme Newsletter bringing the essential information directly into your inbox to keep you up-to-date at any time of the day.

HOME IS WHERE THE NEWS IS

Facebook parent company Meta’s surprise announced decision to remove news content has caused a widespread furor of discussions and debates. It is a moment that will change how news is consumed in the home, and perhaps change how people think about getting their news in their homes. Will that lead to an even more segmented information ecosystem, or will it put into place new home-centric news consumption paradigms?

THE DAILY COMMUTE FROM YOUR LIVING ROOM

You can find this epitomised in Techmeme’s new Ride Home Podcast, which brings the biggest tech stories of the day home to you, even if you’re not driving. Presented in a consumable format, your living space is reimagined as a classroom, a newsroom and a church all at once, for a few minutes a day. It’s a fine example of the creeping overlap between home, work and leisure.

THE TWITTERVERSE EXPANDS INTO YOUR HOME

Among several such examples, Twitter’s recent announcement of 30 new or renewed video content deals, including behemoths such as ESPN and NBCUniversal, highlights the way social media are being woven into our home entertainment ecologies. Bringing new kinds of content into our living rooms, this also changes how we use them, and what kind of entertainment at home looks like and feels like.

A BRIDGE TO TOMORROW

And though home — memory, love, family — will never be the same, technology is increasingly the beating heart of the home itself: how we learn, how we stew, how we play and rest and recuperate and talk back and forth — how we survive. From gaming tech-assists such as Nvidia’s G-Assist to news briefers such as Techmeme, the heart beats faster and stronger.

UNDERSTANDING 'HOME' IN THE DIGITAL AGE

By the time we reach the end of our trip, ‘home’ is no longer just where the heart is. Instead, it is where the technology is – a comfort zone, true enough, but also a laboratory, a learning centre and a portal into the digital world beyond. Whatever happens next, it is clear that homes will continue to play an increasingly significant part in the ways in which we manage the grand project of our lives, as our physical and digital selves increasingly blur and mesh together.

In the abstract, the metaphor of a fireplace might help to capture the intangible warmth that pervades our homes today: not only the glow of screens, but also the hum of digital activity. Thinking further ahead, it is a fascinating prospect to speculate about the manner in which our homes might become transformed once again – into a living landscape of technology and human ingenuity.