Cognitive Cities: The Synthesis of Artificial Intelligence and The Urban Environment

Abstract

Digital transformation and the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are rapidly disrupting many facets of human life through emerging technologies, such as in computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), robotics and autonomous systems. COVID-19, while disrupting entire economies, has also propelled innovation in digital services for employment (remote working), health care (clinical networks), public transportation (self-driving cars), logistics (autonomous systems), and leisure (entertainment platforms) around the world, building upon technological megatrends of the last decades. However, despite this rapid progress, these technological advances have been randomly applied to the improvement of city living and of the human-digital user experience in urban spaces. To respond to this unprecedented advancement of technology and its future integration into the design and management of cities, the cognitive city promises to connect citizens to services more efficiently, increasing the cognition and “learning” of the city itself. Smart cities are fitted with sensors to collect information from citizens and infrastructure that improves efficiency and cost of resources. A cognitive city, however, is more resilient, efficient, and sustainable, able to sense, understand, and respond to challenges in its environment, and to learn and adapt its behaviours, operations, and services based on analysis and contextualization of past experiences.