Massive new development in China is set to be entirely run by artificial intelligence technology which would serve residents and visitors with information it has gathered from them.
With data-collecting sensors and devices, the ‘AI city’ project named Cloud Valley aims to help people live more comfortably by monitoring their habits and anticipating their needs, that’s according to its founders.
But the futuristic complex, currently being built in the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing, has also raised privacy concerns. Everything from robots delivering coffee to office chairs rearranging themselves after a meeting, a smart city project in China aims to put artificial intelligence in charge, its creators told a conference this week – and in doing so, raised some eyebrows.
Analysts had argued that China had been lagging behind within the realm of smart cities until Ping An’s recent announcement, with fellow Asian players Singapore, South Korea, and Japan all having already establishing smart city developments, in addition to the US, UK, and France.
Danish architecture firm BIG and Chinese tech company Terminus unveiled their plans to build the AI-run campus-style development during an online panel at Web Summit, a global tech conference. The project plans to use sensors and wifi-connected devices to gather data on everything from weather and pollution to people’s eating habits to automatically meet residents’ needs, said Terminus founder Victor Ai.
‘It’s almost coming back to this idea of living in a village where, when you show up, even though it’s the first time you’re there, the bartender knows your favorite drink,’ said BIG founding partner Bjarke Ingels.
‘When our environment becomes sensing and sentient we can really open up that kind of seamlessness because the AI can recognize people coming. So it can open the door, so they don’t have to look for their key cards.’
However, the matter of air pollution has recently improved, with five of the last seven lowest monthly measurements of air quality carried out by China’s US embassy since 2008 occurring within the last year, since the country ceased to use coal for energy.
