2025-07-02 –, Theil CB-2 (118p)
What happens to our data and privacy if AI-powered XR glasses become everyday wear? What happens to our perception of ourselves and others if we can each customise and augment our reality —or be augmented by others?
Our panel of lawyers, policy researchers and industry practitioners will examine the data infrastructures of global-scale spatial computing and ask: who will own YOUR reality?
A recent controversy over a “chubby filter” on TikTok sparked calls for a ban. But what if other people could apply the “chubby” filter to YOUR body, live and in real-time, as they passed you on the street? What if they could do so in the privacy of their own glasses, without your knowledge or permission?
The world’s most powerful companies are investing billions into physical-digital infrastructures built on scans of the real world. Companies like Niantic are already training world-mapping AIs on datasets contributed by millions of users. And soon, all-day-wear reality-augmenting glasses may enable consumers to view the world through AI-powered filters and reskins. In the words of Niantic’s CEO, consumers might be able to “theme the world like it’s Nintendo everywhere.”
But unlike the protocols underpinning the Internet, the infrastructure for global-scale spatial computing will likely be proprietary and profit-driven - and it is already being built.
Moderator: Barry Fitzgerald (BW Science)
Companies who supply the technology to augment reality are likely to provide it cheaply or freely in exchange for user data - data about users’ biometrics, data about the world around them, and maybe even data about any bystanders nearby. Will these spatial computing platforms have any incentive to regulate their technology, or to protect the privacy, safety and identity rights of users and bystanders?
In this context, our panel will debate the power dynamic between individuals and businesses, and discuss rights - not only regarding datasets themselves, but rights over how the world around us is graphically augmented, and whether we can effectively control how others augment us.
Bringing perspectives from industry, policy and law from across Europe, our panel will examine the sociocultural impact of the current geospatial data “land grab” and the XR+AI technologies it will power. Drawing on the work of XR4Human and EU initiatives, we’ll provide concrete calls-to-action for attendees to help shape European policy.
Alina is a scientific employee at the Applied University of Mittweida, focusing on XR research and EU grants.
Alina specialises in spatial computing and XR research, leveraging the creation of a human-centered future in computing while contributing to publications and standards.
She’s also a founding board member of theSafeZone, an initiative helping teenagers overcome mental health challenges with VR, immersive technology, and quick access to therapists, and a founding member of XRSI Europe.
Alina set up and has been leading the EU activities of Open AR Cloud Europe gUG as managing director through EU-funded research projects like NGI Atlantic, NGI Search and the recently Horizon Europe-funded project XR4Human.
Rob Morgan is a pioneering spatial storyteller working across XR, immersive theatre and location-based entertainment. He's Lead Narrative and Experience Designer for Wake The Tiger, the multi-award winning Amazement Park.
As Creative Director of Playlines, Rob helped pioneer augmented reality theatre, and builds XR installations for some of the world's largest licenses, attractions and cultural institutions including the National Gallery, Royal Academy, Sky Arts, Netflix and Hasbro.
As a Lead Game Writer at PlayStation he wrote groundbreaking AR games for the world's largest IP as well as writing the first-ever playable demo for PlayStationVR. He's written some of VR's most critically-acclaimed games including the VR Awards Game of The Year ‘A Fisherman’s Tale’.
Rob is a Visiting Fellow at King's College London and lectures widely on XR narrative design and ethics. His book ‘Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality’ (Routledge 2025) is the first dedicated guide to XR storytelling, available now at augmentingimagination.com.
Kelsey Farish is a technology and media lawyer with a focus on digital identity, generative AI, and the legal implications of synthetic audiovisual content. Her work examines how emerging technologies shape (and reshape) our understanding of self, privacy, and representation.
Kelsey advises clients across the media and entertainment industries, from broadcasters and streamers to creators and brands, helping them navigate complex rights frameworks in a fast-changing technological landscape. With a background in both legal practice and cultural commentary, she connects the dots between regulation, storytelling, and the power structures behind how we’re seen - and how we see each other.
She is considered to be a leading legal expert on digital modification of the human form and in addition to her day job as a lawyer, she is a peer-reviewed academic who published one of the first papers on deepfakes in the context of publicity and performers’ rights in 2019. Most recently, she co-authored a chapter on influencer marketing and social media regulation in The Handbook of Fashion Law (Oxford University Press, 2024), exploring how platforms and advertising shape cultural norms around body image, truth, and digital modification.
Originally from the West Coast of the U.S., Kelsey Farish is a London-based solicitor with a practice spanning the UK, Europe and California. She has two core specialisms: the legal implications of technologies such as AI and XR on the one hand, and the persona rights (such as publicity, privacy, and autonomy) of individuals on the other.
Farish brings a rare dual perspective to her work, having advised multinational tech and media companies as well as the creatives whose voices, likenesses or original works are being shaped or used by them. Whether it’s an original screenplay, an actor’s voice, or filmed locations steeped in cultural significance, her goal is to ensure rightsholders retain control over how their assets are used, reused, or reimagined.
She works with production companies, platforms, and talent across the industry, and is a trusted advisor to organisations including Film London and ScreenSkills. A regular speaker at industry events and festivals such as SXSW, Farish is known for bridging the gap between innovation and creative integrity- and for bringing a genuine, deeply human connection to her work.