Enchanted Objects
Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things
Artificial Intelligence isn’t strictly the domain of companies like Netflix and Amazon anymore. AI is disrupting just about every industry says MIT researcher David Rose—from healthcare, to brick-and-mortar retail, to neighborhood security. Whatever your field, be it marketing, social enterprise, education, or government, Rose argues that everyone can and should prototype a multiplicity of futures using AI—before someone else does it for us.
An MIT instructor, AI product designer, and tech entrepreneur, David Rose understands that AI’s power is exponential, and that it has the capacity to improve every aspect of life “the way spellcheck can help a writer.” Formerly the VP of Vision Technology at Warby Parker—where he spearheaded the company’s use of AI to make eye tests accurate, affordable, and accessible—Rose now serves as the Resident Futurist at EPAM Continuum, where he imagines and designs our future digital ecosystems. His mission is to make technology dissolve into the fabric of daily living as naturally as possible. But whether it’s restoring our physical abilities, enhancing the safety of our streets, or predicting consumer needs, one thing is for certain: AI offers us a new organizing principle for modern life—and in his vivid, forward-looking talks, Rose explains how we can take advantage.
Rose is the author of Enchanted Objects, the preeminent book on the Internet of Things—the concept where everyday items are able to anticipate our needs, talk with each other, and make life simpler. A serial entrepreneur, Rose previously served as the CEO at Ditto Labs, and was founder and CEO at Vitality, a company that reinvented medication packaging that is now distributed by CVS and Walgreens. He also founded Ambient Devices, which embedded internet information in objects such as lamps, mirrors, and umbrellas. He holds patents for photo sharing, interactive TV, ambient information displays, and medical devices. His work has been featured at the MoMA, and covered in Wired, The Economist, and The Colbert Report.