In recent years, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a pivotal force in advancing us to living in a ‘smart city’. You might not realize it, but AI is likely already being used in many public services. For instance, AI can be used to predict crime, improve traffic management or monitor your financial transactions.
Deployment of AI technologies however come with its own set of challenges. While the technologies certainly make a city safer, but citizens have great concerns too about privacy, freedom, and accountability.
So in this article, we will explore several AI technologies that are likely to be used in a smart city. Let’s explore the advantages and concerns posed by these advanced computer systems from the perspective of everyday citizens.
Living In A Smart City With AI Technology
Surveillance and Computer Vision for Crime Detection
AI-driven surveillance systems are likely to have already been deployed in many modern cities around the world. These systems can utilize computer vision technology to monitor public spaces in real-time. The tech can very quickly analyze footage to detect suspicious activities such as theft, violence, or vandalism. High-tech cameras equipped with facial recognition can also be very efficient in identifying individuals to pull up records about that person.
Concerns:
Are you a citizen that is concerned about constantly being watched in public spaces? Well, I wouldn’t blame you if you raise questions about personal privacy. There is always a chance that AI systems may misidentify you as we do not know what kind of data has been fed into the facial recognition algorithms.
Smart City Predictive Policing Algorithms
By anticipating criminal behavior with AI, police can take preventative action, potentially stopping crimes before they occur. This can lead to a reduction in crime rates and better deployment of police resources. In a futuristic city, police patrols may even appear in the form of police drones. High-tech drones might not even need any human intervention to operate.
Concerns:
Critics argue that predictive policing can reinforce existing biases within the data. If the data used to train the machine learning models is skewed, then the AI may unfairly target minority communities. We should also be highly concerned with how AI systems make decisions. For example, does the AI make decisions based on facial features, religious affiliations or political views?
Smart City Traffic Management and Public Safety
AI-enabled traffic systems can help in reducing traffic jams and make streets safer for pedestrians. In emergencies, they can also play an active role ensuring that first responders can reach their destination faster, saving lives.
Concerns:
While this technology seems straightforward, it raises concerns about how data is collected and analyzed. Just imagine the sheer amount of data high-tech cameras can capture in seconds! Let’s not forget too that computers are able to process and analyze large volume of data at a very rapid rate.
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