The Future of Urban AI
Cities are evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by rapid technological advancements. The need for a deeper understanding of how Artificial Intelligence can shape urban life has never been more critical. Recognizing this imperative, Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech’s Jacobs Institute and Paris-based think tank Urban AI have partnered on an exploration of trends, applications, and anxieties around how AI is being used to manage, plan, and govern cities around the world. Launched in 2021, this fruitful partnership is entering it’s fourth year.
Global Dialogues on Urban Artificial Intelligence
The fast rise of AI is redrawing our long-held pictures of the future. Some see a new world of abundance, powered by superintelligence. Others see nothing but danger and deprivation. What can we learn from this exploration of the future of urban Artificial Intelligence? Can we see patterns of development or common trends across countries and disciplines? Do we identify shared concerns or enthusiasms among urban stakeholders?
This webinar series delves into how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact our urban futures, envisioning the impacts that advances in AI will have on people, policy, and place within cities in the years to come. Each week, experts at the forefront of urban AI draw on their own work to imagine how AI will continue to shape our urban spaces, engaging with the challenges and opportunities that face the field.
Horizon Scan - The Future of Urban Tech
In addition to a webinar series, the Hub and Urban AI have jointly developed an expert-sourced 10-year forecast of emerging signals and trends. Global urbanization unlocked enormous human potential. But it is changing the planet beyond recognition. According to A recent estimate, human-made mass now outweighs the planet’s biomass. Technology unleashed this change. And there is no end in sight. Our output of buildings, infrastructure, and products continues to grow. Currently, it is doubling every 20 years.
But can technology help us design a new balance? Some see hope in urban tech, an emerging field of applied science and engineering that seeks to make cities more connected, livable, efficient, and accessible. This horizon scan is a map of urban tech’s potential, a handbook of anticipated discoveries, innovations, and developments that will deliver intelligence for urban climate adaptation over the decade ahead. But urban tech is not a panacea. We must also navigate many risks along the way. These hazards are clearly marked too.
AI Can Build a Brighter Urban Future — If We Let People Have a Say
Tools powered by artificial intelligence could improve city life and bring down barriers to community participation in urban planning. But big risks await.
In an op-ed in Bloomberg, Anthony Townsend, Urban Tech Hub, and Hubert Beroche, Urban AI, explore how AI can serve as a positive force in modernizing and reshaping our cities. As they point out, “the choice for cities and their leaders isn’t whether or not to embrace AI’s potential [but] what values we impose on the makers of AI, and how we enforce them”.
About the Organizers
Urban AI is a Paris-based think tank dedicated to the emerging field of “Urban Artificial Intelligence.” Urban AI seeks to generate a holistic body of knowledge on urban artificial intelligence by federating and collaborating with a growing, global community of researchers, public servants, start-ups, and urban subject matter experts, who work at the intersection of cities and technology. Together, we carry out multidisciplinary projects to better understand and assess the impacts of artificial intelligence on urban life and vice versa.
The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute- Urban Tech Hub fosters radical experimentation at the intersection of research, education, and entrepreneurship. Established jointly by Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, their mission is to transform key industries through technological innovation, deep-tech startups, and uniquely skilled talent.