(AI) Artificial intelligence is one of the greatest and grandest developments of the 21st Century. In addition to creating smart solutions for companies, AI has also contributed heavily to the development of smart cities.
But how does AI make cities smarter? Here are the 5 crucial roles that AI plays in urban planning and development:
- AI helps urban planners understand city expansion and population dispersion trends
Artificial intelligence can help city planners identify how and at what rate a city will grow. Now urban developers can evaluate with almost-precise accuracy, which parts of the city need greater attention. They’ll be able to pinpoint the regions of the city where the population will be at its highest and how they can take the right measures to relieve the congestion.
The City Intelligence Lab (CIL) in Vienna seeks to do just this.
- AI allows cities to develop green infrastructure & facilities
One of the greatest contributions of AI in cities has been to climate change.
Take Paris, for example. It is a smart city that is being re-designed to reduce France’s carbon footprint and make the country more eco-friendly. The country plans to replace its 4,500-strong bus fleet with NGV/electric-powered vehicles.
Similarly, many nations have implemented AI-powered smart energy production techniques to reduce their overall energy consumption rate.
- AI plays a very important role in public safety
From tracking crimes-in-progress to identifying suspected criminals, artificial intelligence makes life safer for residents of the city.
For example, in many parts of the US, AI is being used for predictive analysis to understand how certain categories of criminals may strike, what MOs they may use, how often they may commit a crime and where. AI is also used to connect criminals or suspects to known gang members via analysis of their digital footprints.
- AI improves the quality of healthcare in cities
AI truly makes a place a smart city by making basic services like healthcare smarter and more responsive.
Take Enlitic, for example, which is a deep-learning radiology diagnosis tool. Enlitic collates patient data from numerous medical reports, clubs it with relevant clinical data, structures and processes the data, and provides physicians with real-time health diagnostics for patients. This is improving healthcare significantly across geographies.
- AI improves the quality of life of residents
Finally, artificial intelligence improves the standard of living and comfort of city residents by providing smart solutions. For example, AI, when integrated with apps like Google maps, can identify congestions in real-time and safely divert traffic to avoid delays and accidents.
Smart devices like smart TVs, smart lighting, and more, can provide a degree of comfort and luxury to city dwellers. Even AI-enabled search engines can make data access easier thanks to voice search.
