It's official! Book contract with Polity Press

I'm excited to announce that I have officially signed a book contract with Polity Press for a critical project about voice assistants, surveillance capitalism, issues of design, ethics, and the future of voice as a ubiquitous interface. The book is provisionally titled, Voice Assistants, until I find that catchy, sexy title that eludes me at the moment. A brief summary of the book contents for those interested:

This book traces the development of voice assistant technologies melding technical, social, and political-economic perspectives to consider issues such as: the underlying big data infrastructures that voice assistants both depend on and shore up; the design and marketing of voice assistants as domestic/caregiving technologies; how ideologies of gender, race, and class are embedded in the design of voice assistants; the imagined uses (and futures) of voice assistants by the tech companies that design them; the extended data-gathering and reach of voice assistants both within and outside of the home; the ethical and privacy implications of voice assistants; the political economic landscape that frames voice assistants as ideal technological solutions for personal and home management; and the possibilities for reimagining and resisting voice assistants and the paradigm of surveillance capitalism they are imbricated in.

Stay tuned for updates on the project!