CW Unplugged: Megacities
Half of humanity – 3.5 billion people – live in cities today and by 2030, almost 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The world’s cities occupy just 3 per cent of the Earth’s land, but account for 60-80 per cent of energy consumption and 75 per cent of carbon emissions. Rapid urbanization is exerting pressure on fresh water supplies, sewage, the living environment, and public health.
By 2030, the world is projected to have 43 megacities, most of them in developing regions.
Delivered in partnership with The Centre for Global Equality and sponsored by Arm, Mills & Reeve and u-Blox, the CW community came together for an afternoon to discuss the technologies currently being used in Megacities and how we can improve these technologies.
The featured ventures would present their technologies, concepts and problems that they are facing to the Unplugged audience with the audience then being split into teams for the Ideation Workshops which were led by Cambridge Consultants, Fresh Perspectiv and Dovetailed with all four groups coming together at the end to discuss, debate and deliberate amongst each other.
The Cambridge Cultivator, led by The CGE, provided us with two ventures that were focused on at the evening's event:
- Camnexus - Camnexus develop and locally implement integrated technological solutions that respond to the needs of developing regions (governments, industries and communities) who are looking for digital transformation and green innovation
- CamBike Sensor - CamBike Sensor are developing a sensor hub that can be mounted onto bikes, allowing the user to monitor air pollution, estimate road quality, and track their bike
The role of AI and IoT improving lives in a rapidly urbanizing world
We don't realise how all the different layers of the city impact on each other.
- Anne Sternos, Ex-chief design office of Helsinki
After a warm welcome from CW CCO Abhi Naha, Bee Hayes-Thakore, (Director – Connectivity Management for IoT Services Group for Arm), spoke about the role of AI and IoT improving lives in a rapidly urbanizing world.
We were firstly shown a slide of the key megacities around the world from now until 2030 where the population rate is expected to increase by around 10% in cities such as London, Los Angeles and Mexico City and by around 30% in cities such as Manila, Shanghai and Bejing. This slide also showcased some of the future megacities, (with many of these cities being in third-world countries such as Columbia, India and Vietnam), their population now and their population increase by 2030. Greater Shanghai is estimated to have a population of around 170,000,000 by 2030...how can we improve the lives of those living there?
9% of the world's population lives in these cities and the rate of urbanization is growing by the minute with 200,000 people currently relocating from rural areas to megacities. With this rapid increase of population ongoing, how does a megacity become liveable, green, economical or smart? To allow a megacity to become and retain these, we need to work against the ever-growing population.
Bee explained over the next few slides the ways in which agriculture and smart cities can work together to retain this sustainability of living within these cities. The role of IoT in megacities was discussed with the potential value of IoT in cities reaching $1.6 trillion by 2025 and the rate of connected devices by 2025 also surpassing the 1 trillion mark. The revolution of data and AI also came into discussion. Although we are able to train through AI and machine learning, there are also many concerns to relying on data and AI, such as:
- 75% of autonomous vehicles can be easily hacked
- 85% of AI machines are being hacked with losses of personal data
- 57% of AI machines are becoming more intelligent then humans
- 60% of AI technology is currently used by criminals
How do all of these come together to make an impact of the residents living in a city?
- Parking - Where and when people are allowed to park. Also the costs.
- Travelling - How do people travel to work, social events etc.,
- Neighbourhood - How the neighbourhood is thriving economically, crime-wise etc.,
- Cost of living - How can we help to lower the costs of living?
Although there are many concerns with the use of AI, the points listed above are benefitted by the use of AI and machine learning. When companies use AI as their framework, they need to be able to define the consumer's experience with the AI which can be seen with Uber as Bee points out that because the trust and communication between the consumer and AI exists, the company can function and build relationships that benefit the consumer. The AI used in these applications/situations must avoid pit talks of the data that is removed from the user.
Ending her presentation, Bee stated that when thinking of your idea on how to help create a more sustainable city, you must not only think of the user experience, but the citizen experience.
Creating the future requires collaboration.
- Bee Hayes-Thakore
AI and DL unlocking the potential of future cities
Discussing the use of AI and data learning (DL) to unlock the potential of future cities, Charbel Aoun, (AI City Managing Director EMEA at Nvidia) stated that the concept of the megacity is not new!
Charbel explained that within the concept of megacities, there are 4 mega trends which are:
- Urbanization - The movement of people from farms (rural areas) to cities (urban environments)
- Industrialization - From farming economy to a machine economy to data economy
- Demographics - Population change: From Gen X to Gen Y, Z and...Alfa next
- Digitization - Disruption > New business model > New competition
After explaining how these trends are fundamental in the rise of megacities, Charbel went on to explain that we are currently living in a world of datafication. Everything in the world is producing data which allows us, as citizens, to understand what is happening.
Within the megacities, Charbel listed the six technology enablers that fuel innovation and accelerate digitial transformation:
- Sensing
- Mobility
- Security & Blockchain
- Analytics
- Cloud
- AI/DL
Charbel went on to explain that there is currently a digital transformation evolution happening...from the era of computing to the era of AI! The last 30 years have seen the use of computing such as PC Internet, Connectivity and Digitization on the rise whereas the next 30 years will see the rise of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning.
It's clear we're moving from a mobile first to an AI-first world.
- Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google
To conclude his talk, Charbel went on to explain that in 2012 NVIDIA shifted their thoughts from gaming & graphics to AI and how they are working to enable all industries, with AI being the defining technology of this generation. NVIDIA are currently powering 120 smart city start-ups that Charbel personally works with.