An artificially intelligent housing system? The housing crisis and the emergence of AI

Abstract: In this presentation I will look at the way that technologies such as AI are being mobilised in discourse and in practice to address the housing crisis. I will identify some core gaps in our understanding that we need to pay attention to and present a landscape of the housing system that can work as a lens help us think through the application of AI in housing, before offering two possible ways to move research on housing and AI forward. I also propose a methodological orientation that will enable us to open up new ways of thinking about the impacts of AI in housing. Advancing beyond conventional approaches I draw inspiration from Hayles (2017), Maalsen (2023) and Iapaolo and Lynch (2025) to position AI as cognisers and collaborators in producing the housing system but which also opens up novel ways for intervention and resistance.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Sophia Maalsen is a former ARC DECRA Fellow and senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney. She is interested in how the translation of computational logics and technologies, including AI, are being applied to address issues of housing affordability and innovation, as well as looking at the potential role of technologies in tenant advocacy. Her research is predominantly situated at the intersection of the digital and material across urban spaces and governance, housing, and feminism, with particular interest in the digital mediation and reconfiguration of relationships across these spaces.