Josh.ai has published a new Code of Conduct for Artificial Intelligence in the Home, outlining twelve principles the company says should guide how AI systems operate in private living spaces.
The Denver-based company, which develops AI-powered control systems for residential technology, says the code is intended to address a central concern as AI becomes more capable: who ultimately has authority when intelligence can interact with locks, cameras, lighting, climate, security, entertainment and other connected systems.
According to Josh.ai, the answer must always be the homeowner.
“The most powerful technology of our time is moving into the most personal place we have,” said Alex Capecelatro, CEO of Josh.ai. “People are right to ask what happens when AI can unlock a door or watch a camera in their home and our answer is simple: The intelligence in a home must always answer to the people who live there. We are publishing these principles to hold ourselves to them first, and to provide the entire industry with a clear standard to build toward.”
The company’s Code of Conduct focuses on making AI in the home predictable, explainable, reversible, private and subject to human control. Among its principles are requirements that authorized users be able to interrupt or turn off AI without friction, that actions can be explained and undone, and that higher-risk or consequential actions require a stronger level of confirmation.
A key part of Josh.ai’s framework is what it calls the Home Authority Stack. Under that model, the AI itself does not directly control connected devices. Instead, requests pass through the home control system, which evaluates permissions and determines whether an action is allowed before it reaches a device.
Josh.ai argues that this separation between intelligence and authority is essential as AI moves beyond answering questions and begins to orchestrate the physical environment. The company says its approach is designed to ensure that AI may reason or recommend, but the control platform remains responsible for enforcing the homeowner’s rules.
The code also addresses longer-term concerns about increasingly autonomous or self-improving AI systems. Josh.ai’s position is that the connected home should be built with durable boundaries, including permission layers and physical off-switch capabilities, regardless of how capable AI models become.
“The home needs its own code of conduct that might be different than the rest of AI’s infrastructure,” Capecelatro said in an exclusive interview with Connected Design ahead of the announcement of the new Code of Conduct. “Devices in the home have physical consequences. You can unlock a door, open a garage, set a thermostat very high or very low, or turn on and off lights when there might be a safety concern. The first rule is that the human needs to remain in control. If the human is not in control of the home, we’ve already lost.”
Josh.ai is presenting the code as a voluntary standard for the industry rather than a final rulebook. The company is encouraging platform makers, device manufacturers, professional installers and homeowners to consider, adopt and strengthen the principles as AI regulation continues to develop.
For the smart home industry, the announcement underscores a growing shift in the conversation around residential AI. As connected home systems become more powerful, the question is no longer only what AI can do, but how it should be governed inside the most personal spaces people occupy.
The Josh.ai Code of Conduct is available at josh.ai/ai.
