Smart homes are becoming more and more common thanks to the introduction of certain tech like the Amazon Echo, google home, apple home kit, Samsung smart things to name but a few, now imagine a smart city that runs of a more advanced AI that can control everything from traffic logistics to preventing crime, well, in China they have done just that.
The city of Hangzhou has a population over 9.2 million, collaborated with Alibaba and Foxconn to build the ''Brain City'' project. Essentially handing over the reigns to an AI system, so to speak.
City Brain AI is fed all forms of data it can get hold off, from security cameras, traffic cameras, social media, tracking the population by phone GPS as well as an enormous amount of other data. The idea behind the City Brain is to improve urban life in Hangzhou, and it seems to have worked.
With all the data the AI is absorbing it is able to control a number of elements in the city such as traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, street lighting, it can also notify local authorities of illegal parking, traffic accidents and if you commit a crime, the AI can track you and let the police know where your location is. Because it is a deep learning AI, it will learn the route you take to work, so if there is a traffic jam, it sends you a text telling you and will even suggest a new route to take. The results of all this are astonishing, congestion is down, traffic accidents are down, crime is down and more peoples lives have been saved.
An article in NewScientist points out how the whole traffic system works.
Alibaba have placed almost 200'000 cameras within the city to help supply the AI with full real time information. This may seem like a full on invasion of privacy, but in China, when it comes to privacy, the people have little say.
Ethically there are going to be some issues for both sides of the argument. Do you want an AI to track you all day every day? But If you are hit by a car and your life is saved thanks to that AI following your every move would you feel the same way? The AI has proved that it can indeed improve urban life, but at what cost?
There are a lot of questions surrounding the privacy subject, despite this, the Project has been a huge success, so what is in its future?
I think that the smart city could go further in helping our day to day lives. If the AI had complete access to everything from energy and water utilities, your in house activities, routines and even hobbies, lives and the environmental impact could all be improved.
Lets look at a normal day scenario.
You start work a 9am, but the AI has learned how long it takes you to travel and what your morning activities are, and it calculated the appropriate time to wake you so you can do your thing and get to work. so it wakes you up, turns on your bedroom lights or opens the curtains, when you fill the coffee pot, it pours the exact amount needed, reducing waste, the AI monitors your health and can decide if you are fit for work, and if you are not, it will inform your boss. (no more bogus sick days), when you leave the house it turns off all non essentials and locks the house up, after redirecting you round a traffic jam, you arrive at work on time.
This may all sound very futuristic, and like something from a Sci-fi film, but the truth is, we already have the technology to do this now in every city. Its just a question of ethics and cost. There are people out there who wouldn't mind being monitored 24/7 as they feel the benefits outweigh the cons, the other side of that coin don't want their privacy invaded in such a way and see the potential dangers of such technology, as with any computer system, it can be manipulated and miss managed just like the NSA when Snowden ratted them out. But with an AI at the controls, who is to say that can't be manipulated in the same way?
It is a thought provoking subject. With governments around the world with their own agenda and who are ultimately responsible for such tech to be implemented and controlled, can we trust them enough not to fuck things up like so many in the past? I for one do not trust mine unless I had proof of there honesty.
What Do you Think?
Thanks for reading.
Stu @TechMojo
