Overview 

This SPRITE+ Deep Dive focuses on the future evolution of Extended Reality (XR) technologies and what this means for TIPSS risks and risk mitigation. 

Extended reality is an umbrella term for technologies that blend physical and digital environments, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Although XR technologies have a long history, uptake was relatively limited until the 2010s, when advances in computing power, connectivity, hardware design, artificial intelligence, and 3D graphics made XR commercially viable (Ball 2024). Given significant investments in R&D by major technology companies, government initiatives to promote the industry (e.g., in the USA), and increasing adoption in multiple sectors, XR is likely to become a more common feature of work and home lives in coming years. 

Over the next decade we can expect XR to evolve through interaction with other existing and emerging technologies and societal changes. Evolution will be driven by societal demand and innovation via "3 Cs" (Capgemini, 2025) processes:  

• Convergence: merging XR with other, previously distinct, technologies  

• Combination: using XR with other technologies for a specific purpose  

• Compounding: technological advancements in XR and other emerging technologies building on each another. 

Some outcomes are (to an extent) predictable. For example: 

• Combining Virtual Reality (VR) with Generative AI will create human-like non-human interlocutors with which users can interact within VR applications. This will intersect with the social media influencer and marketing communities to create artificial interactive influencers that will be exploited for marketing (and, potentially, for malevolent influence). (c.f., Hayden, 2025).  

• Combining AR glasses with AI assistants could open the door to everyday, all-day augmentation of cognition, memory and core skills, driving a new wave of assistive technology that could exacerbate the digital divide, level the playing field, and/or open the door to AI-advertising or malevolent manipulation of perception (e.g., Krauß et al., 2023; O’Hagan, et al., 2024; Ruocco et al., 2024) 

Many outcomes (including second and third order outcomes) are not immediately obvious. 

This SPRITE+ Deep Dive focuses on the ways in which such technology convergence transforms and disrupts TIPSS in the 5-15 year time horizon. Research and commentary on XR risks has increased in recent years, covering risks to data (privacy), cybersecurity, child safety, psychological well-being, physical safety, commerce and industry, and society more broadly. Some works consider, in passing, the potential risks of XR use in specific sectors and use cases (e.g., healthcare, education, law enforcement, communication and collaboration, entertainment, and training) as part of a wider review of XR use in that sector. Reviews and studies examining XR harms often focus on a relatively narrow range of non-sector-specific risks. Authoritative exploration of how risks might develop as XR technologies interact with other existing and emerging technologies is rare. 

In the policy space, XR technologies have been the subject of some Government and regulatory horizon scanning interest (see, for example, ICO, 2024 in the UK and COE 2024 in Europe; see also Abadi et al., 2023) although thus far with little attention to future regulatory issues associated with the 3Cs. This gap needs urgent attention. As Jurgens and Bheemaiah (2025) note: "The policies that succeed won’t be the ones that regulate technologies in isolation but that understand their interconnected nature". 

Aim and objectives 

In this project we will build a community of interest that will (inter alia) address two broad questions: 

(a) What are the most significant ways in which the convergence, combination, and compounding of extended reality and other emerging technologies could transform and disrupt TIPSS in the medium and longer term? 

(b) What are the societal, technological, legal and ethical, and research implications of such disruptions? 

To achieve this, we will: 

• scope the broad landscape of XR risks and how risks change and evolve in the light of actual and potential convergence, combination, and compounding; 

• identify promising avenues for technical, social-technical, and policy approaches to risk management; 

• identify priority research and policy gaps; 

• build a cross-sector, multidisciplinary SPRITE+ community of interest across the UK and beyond, including academics, industry, policy-makers and regulators, and NGOs; 

• identify and showcase relevant new and emerging research, and with a particular focus on supporting the growing number of PhD and early career researchers working in this area. 

The project will be multidisciplinary and cross-sector, considering social, technical, economic, and legal dimensions. We will also seek opportunities to collaborate with cognate networks and the other SPRITE+ deep dive topics. The evolution of XR has XR-TIPSSrelevance to all three DD topics but is particularly close to the Neurotechnology deep dive. 

Our findings will inform national policy-making and industry practice, identify promising research directions, and provide a platform for engagement with similar communities in Europe and beyond. 

Project Plan 

We will hold a series of activities and consultation events with key stakeholders (academics, industry, policy makers and NGOs), which may include in person workshops, online round tables, and interviews, to develop and refine a white paper setting out findings, priorities and prospects for research, policy and practice.  

Get involved:  

1. Join our XR TIPSS Community of Interest.

2. Workshops across the next 12 months.