Hosted by Prof. Greg Clark, the panel accommodated Mr Qing
Wei, CTO of Microsoft China, along with Dr Noah Radford, Futurist-In-Chief, at
the Dubai Future Foundation, and it revolved around the correlation between
technology and smart cities.
The use of technology in our everyday lives, a trend that
was tremendously accelerated during the pandemic, through remote work and
education, online shopping and the digitization of public services, pushed
forward the idea of our future cities, and this is only the beginning. But is
humanity ready to accept those changes, or is the concept of the smart city too
new and its application too fast for citizens to adopt?
Opening the discussion, Mr Wei Qing pointed out that, while
artificial intelligence, IoT and smart cities are used as buzzwords, we are, in
fact, not diverging from the fundamental rule of information technology and we
are not getting away from the classic DIKW pyramid (Data, Information,
Knowledge and Wisdom). “For every new technology” he said, “data is our crude
oil: we need to refine that into information”. Information is then used to
produce actions and decisions, thus becoming knowledge.
According to him, the DIK will sooner or later be handled
mostly by machines, but humans will always come in to produce wisdom. “Everything
is about information, and information is not just about insight, it also has to
do with power. Once it’s become power, people will fight for it and will have
different opinions on power”.
The interesting part about the DIKW pyramid, is that every
step is connected by people, with different beliefs and goals, opinions and
objectives. And, according to Dr Noah Radford, this is how the technology
pyramid becomes a process of governance.
“Cities are not an optimization problem. Cities are not a
problem for which there is a solution. It’s an emerging, evolving debate and
dialogue and the technology that works best in those contexts is that which
makes us understand each other better, perhaps make better decisions that optimize
each other’s goals or balance those out and, ultimately, make life worth
living.” He then went on to explain that, when thinking about the role of smart
cities in making our world a better place, we should always keep in mind that
the technology has to always be in the service of people. And sometimes, the
answer to servicing people is actually low tech.
Dr Radford then proceeded to explain that the real work of trying
to advance into the future its actually the social parameter, figuring our way
around this new reality and how to operate in this new digital environment. “And
those are the hardest changes to accept”, he explained. “Particularly for those
who have spent a whole life becoming experts in a certain way of doing things. How
do you rapidly unlearn all that you have worked so hard to achieve and learn
all these new technologies, not only as a person, but also as an organization,
a city or a society?”. In his opinion, the biggest takeaway from COVID is that
the real innovation is adapting and experimenting with our regulations and our
ways of doing things, in a rapidly changing world.
But does efficiency ultimately equal livability, or is livability
something more? Efficiency is actually just one part of the equation.
According to Mr Qing Wei, many city governors or planners are
trying to develop a so-called “good” city plan, with systematic road structure,
roadside shops, department stores, a hospital, a school. But human nature has
its own pattern. As per Christopher Alexander, a city is not a tree
-perfectly structured and orderly – and it needs very deep thinking in order to
develop an organic system that is a city. As a result, we see city developers
planning a smart city, forgetting that it has to be used by citizens. And the
citizens, without proper training and communication, do not see a smart city, because
they don’t see any relevance to their everyday life.
A good place to live is only going to be even better when
you add the flexibility and the efficiency of digital tools. But we need to
make sure to keep human nature as a part of this equation.
When asked about AI ethics, Dr Radford referred to the “moral
machine”, an MIT study conducted around the world, that uncovered fascinating
cultural differences between how people make ethical choices. “So, when we get into the question of how different
cities, societies and cultures are dealing with the optimization offered by
technology, the ones that are going to succeed are the ones which had
experience with dealing with these different points of view between different
cultures, goals and agendas”, he explained. “And that is a real competitive
advantage for Dubai and any multicultural city, that takes into account different
perspectives, to make the decisions that really matter”.
On the closing remarks, both speakers agreed that AI can
provide us with data, that can help create more equitable cities, but not in a
decision making or governance capacity. According to Mr Wei, current and future
technology enables us to calculate everything and helps people take a wise and
smart decision.
“We should probably translate a smart city not just into
smart people, but to people who can make smart and wise decisions. And that is
where the machines can help us, by getting excess thinking off of our brains,
so that we can concentrate on meaningful decisions, instead of being consumed
with technical computing”.
People are and will remain the epicenter of cities. While digitalization
is far more than a smart building or a smart city, human beings are enabled by
machines all the time. And all those who struggle with the idea of a future
city, should keep in mind that machines are here to empower us, not replace us.
*The World Built Environment Forum (WBEF) is an
initiative of RICS, a leading international professional body of surveyors, and
its mission is to advance discussions of critical importance to the built and
natural environment, inspiring positive and sustainable change for a prosperous
and inclusive future.
