What happens to people when tech powers cities?

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Wearable fitness devices with personal plans link us to team members to set and achieve group goals (I call these personal nagging devices)
Wearable fitness devices with personal plans link us to team members to set and achieve group goals (I call these personal nagging devices)

Robotics and artificial intelligence will permeate a large part of our daily life in the near future

By 
 Sylvie Albert


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Published: Mon 11 Sep 2017, 8:00 PM

Last updated: Mon 11 Sep 2017, 10:57 PM

Emergent technologies are poised to radically change how we work and live. They will transform our cities and workplaces, shifting jobs and entrepreneurship in new directions, and spur new ways to manage lives. All of society will be affected, up to and including how we interact with machines themselves.
Sophisticated machines and applications that communicate online will accelerate demand for broadband internet and challenge existing information and telecommunication norms.
All of this will require ongoing discussions about security, infrastructure and open-data policy and planning. We now need action.
As a researcher focused on digitalisation of cities for 20 years, I have led teams of consultants to develop intelligent communities across Canada, and been the chief jurist for the International Intelligent Community Awards for the last 12 years.
Here's why I believe we're about to start turning these visions into reality.
Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will "permeate a large part of our daily life by 2025 and affect most of our industries," according to the Pew Research Centre. We see some of these changes today.
Robots already perform tasks as diverse as dispensing frozen yogurt in malls, monitoring rail systems and keeping millions of elevators running smoothly. IBM's Watson AI technology is used in health care to analyse DNA and help us determine trends and future options for our health.
Wearable fitness devices with personal plans link us to team members to set and achieve group goals (I call these personal nagging devices). I have a robot to vacuum my floors (I love it) and I am closely watching the progress of personal robot assistants with amazing capabilities already being showcased around the world.
I'd love to have Honda's Asimo at my faculty's front entrance to answer questions and be a tutor for students.
Over the next five years, more than a million new mobile broadband subscribers will be added per day worldwide, Ericsson's 2017 mobility report estimates. More people have multiple mobile phone subscriptions, and more will choose mobile instead of conventional wired, landline phones.
Desktop computer demand is now flat in contrast to growing demand for tablets, laptops, drones, smartphones and other mobile gadgets, causing broadband internet subscriptions to increase exponentially. This will strain our broadband infrastructure as we expand the Internet of Things, in which every object has a wireless chip that connects it to everything else.
The number of connected objects - including sensors in cars, wearable devices, electricity and gas meter readers in homes, point-of-sale terminals in businesses and drones - grew 31 per cent between 2016 and 2017, to 8.4 billion devices, according to Gartner analysts. And the number of devices is forecast to grow to 81 billion by 2025, according to IDC research.
Demand for sensors in fixed locations such as our homes (security cameras and motion sensors, smart fridges and meter readers) continue to increase. They save money and labour, and make our lives easier and safer.
That volume of devices will give us a lot of data to analyse, which calls for improved policies on security and privacy as mobile sensors monitor our personal spaces and bodies.
The proportion of the world's population living in cities is expected to grow from 54 per cent to 66 per cent by 2050, adding another 2.5 billion people to urban areas, the United Nations predicts. We must prepare by creating high-quality, sustainable communities through smart use of technology.
For example, we're finally seeing more telework or home-based work. This has been possible for 20 years but slow to take hold, mostly due to our desire to hang on to old paradigms despite an increasing proportion of knowledge workers. Telework can limit stress on roads, families and result in decreased operating costs while lessening our carbon footprint.
AT&T's predictions for automation, growth and change are staggering. Tasks performed by bots grew 200 per cent over the past year and are expected to triple this year. This could be scary for cities that are job creators, but bots could also improve quality of life, acting as personal robot assistants.
Of course, technology has good and bad sides. Drones can pose threats to privacy but also have benefits.
These applications can be extended to communities to meet industrial challenges. Cities concentrate talent, which will bring new innovations, and we will need them to deal with the negative effects of expanding cities and the side-effects of increased technology use.
These trends suggest a third industrial revolution. Are our infrastructure and policies ready, and our industries prepared to innovate? Are we ready for the future?
Sylvie Albert is Dean, Faculty of Business & Economics, University of Winnipeg
-The Conversation


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