Companies and universities like Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard, etc. are already working towards advancing artificial intelligence and many have got successful stories. Now the fifth giant Uber is entering the AI field in hopes that it will transform the way transportation is taking place in the cities today. Uber already runs a self-driving car lab in Pittsburgh after poaching 40 researchers and scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, and it recently acquired the San Francisco self-driving car company, Otto. Self-driving car in coming 10 years is surely going to transform the way we see transportation right now.
We are already aware that small technologies have already transformed our life from a small Fitbit watch to the smartphone you have in your hand, it has transformed and designed us in a way we never thought of or imagined about. Can you imagine how tiny little device has changed the way you navigate through cities, the way you order a food, or have a book bought from Amazon? Knowingly or unknowingly we are redesigned by the very technology we have designed.
Can we assume or imagine that AI will change the way we look at cities? Can it upgrade the way cities are functioning? If Uber is taking AI into transportation can it be assumed that AI will be used for better urban planning?
How will AI transform or transcend the future cities? Furthermore, Companies like Nvidia, Microsoft City Next and many other companies like Uber, Google, IBM have already started working with the idea of AI and Cities. There are certain numerous set of events that will ponder and change the way we live, work and play in the city.
Read this article on how AI robots and automation is or will transform the cities.
https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/when-artificial-intelligence-rules-the-city/509999/
https://www.wired.com/2016/12/uber-buys-mysterious-startup-make-ai-company/
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/deep-learning-ai/industries/ai-cities/
https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-us/industries/citynext/
I have just had a 3 hour research seminar with my students discussing the impact of AI on cities. The two papers we read and discussed are:
Dorr A 2016 Technology blindness and temporal imprecision: rethinking the long term in an era of accelerating technological change Foresight 18(4), pp.391-413.
Kitchin R 2016 The ethics of smart cities and urban science Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 374(2083), pp. 1-15.
Dorr's paper focuses on the impact of self-driving electric cars, but I think the timelines he has in mind are too optimistic. Kitchin's paper analyses the use of big data in the context of urban governance and the many ethical and political dilemmas it generates.
The rise in AI coupled with the deflationary ontologies of the human mind emerging from recent work in neuroscience and philosophy of mind will mean, I think, that future generations will have a different understanding of what it means to be human. I looked at some of the issues involved in this (in press) paper:
Article Demonic Geographies
I have just had a 3 hour research seminar with my students discussing the impact of AI on cities. The two papers we read and discussed are:
Dorr A 2016 Technology blindness and temporal imprecision: rethinking the long term in an era of accelerating technological change Foresight 18(4), pp.391-413.
Kitchin R 2016 The ethics of smart cities and urban science Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 374(2083), pp. 1-15.
Dorr's paper focuses on the impact of self-driving electric cars, but I think the timelines he has in mind are too optimistic. Kitchin's paper analyses the use of big data in the context of urban governance and the many ethical and political dilemmas it generates.
The rise in AI coupled with the deflationary ontologies of the human mind emerging from recent work in neuroscience and philosophy of mind will mean, I think, that future generations will have a different understanding of what it means to be human. I looked at some of the issues involved in this (in press) paper:
Article Demonic Geographies
Some 30-40 years ago we were looking for an innocuous "title" to use for what we were doing. Nitski, Feigenbaum, Penny Nye, etc., thought "artificial Intelligence" would impress the holders of research $ to dedicate some of it to us! Thus "artificial" or outside of a human brain and "intelligence" or data, knowledge, etc., assimilated. Now, the entire functioning of our world will be influenced by AI, no question about this, the problem remains to control process flow when our mimic uncontrollably directs flow counterintuitively! Enough is sometimes too much!
@Dragos Simandan
I will have a look at the papers, thank you so much.
Regarding the future generations interpretation of "What it means to be Human?" It could be possible that the interpretation will be based on certain patterns. We surely can't predict the future but we can definitely identify the patterns of the future. Big data is another hot topic when it comes to AI and Cities, There are claims where Big Data is actually dividing cities instead of making cities inclusive. Cathy O'Neil in her book "Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy" identify certain aspects on how big data instead of making inclusive society or inclusive city it is dividing us into different dimensions. O’Neil calls on modellers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it’s up to us to become savvier about the models that govern our lives. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student can’t get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), he’s then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.” Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.
I think the cusp of AI being a dominant force in transforming cities will largely be distributed in small systems, products and services. For now, as far as I see we are still on the edge of exploring AI to its full potential. Autonomous electric cars, Automated solar panels that follow the sun path. and further, more retail stores like amazon go, etc. are so much distributed in different fields. The critical question here is? Will the future cities look more of an automated version of itself? or will it have a new meaning altogether? Is 'automation' the only lead which AI is leading us towards? or is there anything beyond AI? maybe Artificial Consciousness? If Universal Basic Income comes into the picture than do we as human beings need to 'work'? And the biggest question: "What it means to be 'Human' in the age of AI?" I think we can't predict the future but for sure we can identify the patterns that will help us leads towards the future cities where the meaning of being human and meaning of living in the city is ultimately complex.
And Once again thank you so much for the reply.
I suspect that, soon, more and more of the routine tasks in a city will be performed by slightly AI machines, which will have very little if any understanding of human thinking and behavior. This means that every day in many ways we humans will have to accept and fit in with their limitations and lack of common-sense. An example now is the typical supermarket check out machine which all too often gets itself tangled and requires human supervisor intervention. Every day in many ways, less freedom of action and thought for us. Yuk!
The rationale for central cities is currently focused on face-to-face meetings. This requirement may lessen as a result of AI. Sports and Entertainment venues may lose customers due to the superior broadcast of these events. As a result, I expect the city to flatten. Rent gradients will decrease.
How will artificial intelligence transform the cities? It can enhance productivity by providing persons with the actionable data they need to make critical decisions when they need thru the use of data science. The attached gives some of these affordances that I hope can be useful to your question.
Best regards,
debra
Chapter Affordances of Data Science in Agriculture, Manufacturing, a...
How will artificial intelligence transform the cities?
There are numerous research as well as pragmatic solutions implementation using automation, IoT & Big Data Analytics to transform cities. There are many companies offer various solutions to make cities smarter from efficiency, effectiveness, security / risk, quality of life & cost perspectives. You can refer to the following links for some non-exhaustive examples:
https://www.google.com/#q=HPE+Smart+cities
https://www.google.com/#q=ibm+smart+cities+for+a+smarter+planet
No more wrecks or people injured in automobile accidents, people no longer needed for anything, capitalism not influential, religion and politics of no consideration, just think about whatever and the impossible will be accomplished instantaniously! What fun? Jest?
Er … to follow up my previous “for the worse” answer (only slightly tongue in cheek!), yesterday I spent half an hour paying a bill by telephone (the old landline kind). It took so long because I had to talk to a slightly AI computer system (pleasant female voice) which had serious trouble, for example, distinguishing my (actually pretty clear) pronunciation of “nought” from “nine”. At the third attempt at the whole conversation the job finally got done but to get there I HAD TO LEARN what I could and couldn’t say and how I had to say it – eg no irrelevancies of any kind – just answer the bl**dy questions.
Hence the nightmare vision of a “smart” city where one spends all one’s time struggling to interact with the somewhat dumb machines that run it and interface with the population…
OK, I exaggerate a bit but…
Jim
PS Dear MACHINES, do NOT attempt to read this answer – it’s too hard for you!
Shaurya
A possible problem with "smart" cities -- they will tend to be electronically highly integrated (with embedded AI etc) and therefore much more vulnerable to cyber-attack than "dumb" cities? What is the expert view on this??
Best regards
JIm
James Doran
Thank you for your response. Keeping in mind the moore's law I think there is a high amount of certainty that we might be able to make machines better at certain deterministic tasks. Though I am unsure on what scale those task can be applied as far as when it comes to city level tasks, there are already well designed systems in place which tends to use AI. For example the Traffic Management System in Singapore or London they have been using AI to micro manage the whole system. Yes! cyber security in smart city would be huge thing to keep in mind since our state or city level policy at the moment doesn't have any cyber security policies for urban infrastructure systems. Policymakers will have to keep in mind the potential damage it can cause to the city systems and millions $$$. They will have to come up with policies before the actual futuristic smart cities comes into reality.
Recent article in this line:
Calzada, I. (2019), Technological Sovereignty: Protecting Citizens’ Digital Rights in the AI-driven and post-GDPR Algorithmic and City-Regional European Realm, Regions eZine, Issue 4. DOI: 10.1080/13673882.2018.00001038.
Article Technological Sovereignty: Protecting Citizens’ Digital Righ...
Dear Shaurya,
If you have not seen this oft-read and citied paper, you may like to have a look:
Kumar, T.M. Vinod and Dahiya, B. (2017) ‘Smart Economy in Smart Cities’, In T.M. Vinod Kumar (Ed.) Smart Economy in Smart Cities, Springer Nature, Singapore, pp. 3-76
Chapter Smart Economy in Smart Cities
Wish you all the best!
Dear experts,
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The book has now entered its editorial stage. The effort is global in reach. The volume will be published by Elsevier, as traditional book as well as through ScienceDirect.
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It totally depends on how we are using the "Artificial Intelligence" in an effective way. Actually, the way presented by the MNCs to change the holistic culture of any city to a new one, I am quite uncomfortable with that. We can use AI for different purposes to make things better and of course, it will take time.
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