Autonomous systems are now ubiquitous. They control homes, planes and cars; criminal sentencing and mortgage approvals. Facial recognition systems track citizens. Robots are moving from factories into homes. These systems – which operate independent of humans – promise huge benefits and, as with all new technologies, important costs. Some of which may take time to fully reveal themselves. Cat Royale is an artwork that explores our ambivalence about these systems which delight and entrance us one moment, and oppress the next. A small society of cats will live with an autonomous system that is directed to create them a utopia. The system will feed them, care for them and play with them. It will study them to measure their happiness and maximise it.

The artists Blast Theory and the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems research team will design, deploy and study a high-profile interactive artwork called Cat Royale that will engage the public with issues of trust in autonomous systems – especially in relation to the wider societal challenge of health and wellbeing – in a compelling, provocative and yet safe way. The project will involve the public in creating and running a paradise for cats in which AS technologies, including computer vision, robotics and IoT, will monitor and tend to the wellbeing of a small community of cats that inhabit it. This will be displayed as a public installation at a prestigious arts venue, while a parallel social media campaign will engage the public in the design of the work, in supporting the AI in its tasks, and in debating the wider significance of the work, specifically its relationship to future human welling.