Urban development at risk Trinity Assistant Professor Federico Cugurullo highlights the challenges and risks of integrating artificial intelligence in urban development, emphasising the crucial need to align AI with human values Since the dawn of civilisation, the challenge in computer science and philosophy which, production of urban spaces and their so far, no one has solved. The problem in question is not governance have been a human that AI is a malign intelligence wishing to harm humans phenomenon. The spaces that we and destroy humankind. The problem is that AI, since it have built and inhabited reflect our is a non-human intelligence, is struggling to understand culture, history and the intricate power relations that humanity. shape our societies and economies. Across time and space, the human being has been the ‘faber’, Latin for forger and maker. The maker and ruler of urban spaces. Numerous AIs, such as ChatGPT, are capable of producing sophisticated texts, but they are unable to grasp their meaning. They are Today, in the age of artificial unconscious intelligence bereft of the intelligence (AI), this status quo capacity to reflect on the meaning is being eroded. Trinity is leading globally on an innovative strand of At Trinity we are and implication of what they do. This is a relatively minor issue when research at the nexus between AI and urbanism. Recently, as part of an international project looking at the working on the cutting edge of urban AI is in charge of producing text, but it becomes a major one when AI produces and governs space. The urban impact of AI on cities, we developed and AI studies space of the city where we live. The a new field of research called AI infrastructural space that sustains the urbanism. This is the first attempt in global supply chains upon which our the world to merge urban studies with the study of AI, societies depend. The domestic spaces of our homes in a way that can help us understand and mitigate the are where our most intimate activities take place. In the risks that the emergence of non-human intelligences age of AI urbanism, a multitude of artificial intelligences in urban governance inevitably poses. are shaping our spaces and thus our future. There is A myriad of AIs have already entered our cities and everyday life. We cannot touch them, but their impact is tangible. Algorithms are calculating who will qualify for no guarantee that the spaces and the future that AI is shaping will be in line with human values, interests and goals. a home mortgage or health insurance. Contact-tracing Aligning the development of AI with the development apps are deciding who must isolate at home to meet of the city, in a way that is conducive to sustainability, quarantine requirements. Predictive technologies, such is going to be one of the greatest challenges of the as Palantir, are analysing urban data to predict who 21st century. Navigating this path presents formidable will commit a crime in the city, and thus who will be challenges to the realms of social and environmental targeted by police officers. Large-scale digital platforms sustainability, areas where AI currently grapples with are developing digital twins of our cities and planning shortcomings characterised by biases and energy- their architectural evolution. These are all tasks that, intensive operations. At Trinity we prior to the advent of AI, had been activities performed are working on the cutting edge by humans on the basis of human reasoning. of urban and AI studies to align a Human reasoning is far from perfect, but it is human and as such it can be aligned with human values and now emerging AI urbanism with a sustainable urbanism. goals. AI is a non-human intelligence and its logic is not necessarily compatible with what we appreciate and Read more about the rise of AI urbanism in value. This is the so-called alignment problem: a major post-smart cities
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