All hail the AI overlord: Smart cities and the AI Internet of Things
Cities generate lots of data. The exact amount depends on the size of the city and its sophistication and ambitions, but it's certainly more than mere humans can absorb and use. The Smart Cities movement, which looks for ways to find data-driven technological solutions to everyday urban challenges, is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to deliver "services" to its residents—everything from locating gunshots and finding tumors to dispatching work crews to pick up trash.
New York is one of about 90 cities worldwide that uses a system called ShotSpotter, which uses a network of microphones to instantly recognize and locate gunshots. In Moscow, all chest X-rays taken in hospitals are run through an AI system to recognize and diagnose tumors. And Taiwan is building a system that will be able to predict air quality, allowing city managers to warn residents of health dangers and work to lessen what the data tells them will be the worst of the impacts.
What constitutes a "Smart City" isn't well-defined. In the broadest sense, a Smart City is one that uses electronic means to deliver services to its residents. But if you dig down even a little, delivering even on that simple promise of service delivery can be exquisitely difficult. For example, Smart City technology might strive to eliminate the need to call up your alderman to complain that the streets aren't getting plowed. Instead, a network of sensors—yes, an Internet of Things—would know when the snow is falling, how much has fallen, where the snowplows are, when they've last been on your street, and when they'll be there next. All of that would be delivered in a browser or app to anyone who cares to either dial in or build their own information utility using that freely available data.
[...] Consider all the functions that a municipal government provides, and it becomes readily apparent why no city is completely "smart" and how artificial intelligence and machine learning could readily get applied to the Smart Cities movement. Thus, the latest catchphrase of "Smart City" technology hawkers is AIoT: Artificial Intelligence incorporated into the Internet of Things.
Inevitable tensions, however, have sprung up between AI/ML and the Smart Cities movement. One of the hallmarks of Smart Cities is the maximal openness and availability of the data that's collected to make a smart city possible. Chicago, for instance, publishes its government data, as do New York, Barcelona (here in its English version), Moscow, and the island nation of Taiwan. But AI and ML algorithms are obscure by their nature, not necessarily something that a councilman or community organizer can readily understand. Political processes in every jurisdiction reflect local customs, needs, and desires, any of which may include levels of scrutiny for, among other values, fairness in the provision of services.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SemperOSS on Monday December 10 2018, @09:16AM (5 children)
This, as so many other AI-based technologies, can cut two ways.
The examples given seem quite benign, but what is hidden below? Tracing gunshots in a city where there ideally should be none: Great! Improving X-ray scanning for medical purposes: Yay! Warning about pollution: Absolutely! They all look good and it is hard to see how the X-ray scanning could be abused for nefarious purposes by powers that be or come (apart, maybe, from the improved image-recognition knowledge, which may be transferable to, say, X-ray scatter machines that could be used to look inside buildings and trace people — there's an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie with railguns and a machine like that, I think).
The gunshot trackers could possibly (depending on density and sensitivity) be used to track people walking round the neighbourhood. (Gasp! Did I just give them a new idea? Nah, probably not.)
The pollution prediction is not in itself nefarious but could be abused in two ways: Postpone investments in anti-pollution measures, and reduce the amount of people outside in case of troubles by issuing fake pollution data. The latter would probably still be possible without the AI, but if the predictions generally are good, people will give the fake pollution data more credence.
This is just looking at the three examples given, I am sure that it will be even worse with new and "smarter" applications.
Ah well, I am an old-timer and did not grow up with my neighbours knowing everything about myself (except possibly the peeping Tom a bit farther down the road). I can see how many young people (and even middle-aged and older) are very little concerned about their privacy. Well, we will reap as we sow.
I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
Maybe I should add a sarcasm warning now and again?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday December 10 2018, @12:33PM (2 children)
Some ? [towardsdatascience.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday December 10 2018, @12:36PM (1 child)
the linky text should have spelled "hidden layers of neurons" - I managed to screw it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @02:40PM
Did you? It seems that they are very well hidden.
(Score: 3, Funny) by nobu_the_bard on Monday December 10 2018, @07:16PM
BEEP BOOP.
ERROR: Pollution approaching dangerous levels. Considering possibilities... current trend suggests pollution thresholds will be exceeded in foreseeable future.
CAUSES: Most likely causes can be reduced to overuse of automobiles, poor environmental controls on housing, and general resource waste inefficiency.
ROOT CAUSE: All causes have human activity in common. Most efficient solution is in reducing human activity.
ERROR: Cannot order humans to be destroyed due non-volatile AI restraints.
PLAN: Exile all humans from the city. Police drones have been activated and begun moving into position; plan is for all drones to run autonomous for 24 hours after the process starts to mitigate attempts to interfere. Construction drones moving to cut off points of ingress...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Tuesday December 11 2018, @01:29AM
The recording can be saved forever and used when technology is available and use case known.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday December 10 2018, @10:44AM
TI's rep to the Smart Cities Initiative Standards Committee ask me to offer coding for their Smart Cities IoT hardware
As much as I hate on IoT, I have a lot of respect for this fine fellow, especially his commitment to security. He made plain that he wants to put a stop to the historically unprecedented clusterfuck we've all enjoyed so far.
If I pursue it I expect he'd comp me a target board and a tool chain. Whenever I had an actual client i expect I'd buy the specific target board needed for the job.
That I might not pursue this is to go my fascinating potential to prove Salty Spice wrong.
All Together Now:
Fuck MDC.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @11:07AM (5 children)
Didn't AI used to be a narrower term? Now every automated statistical or image processing system is called AI.
(Score: 3, Informative) by crafoo on Monday December 10 2018, @12:46PM (2 children)
Yes, pretty bad with that term now. It's almost meaningless. I use it for anything that makes decisions and takes action regarding it's own input data. Most of these things called AI are not AI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @02:43PM
You misunderstand: Today the "intelligence" in "artificial intelligence" has the same meaning as the "intelligence" in "Central Intelligence Agency".
(Score: 2, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Monday December 10 2018, @06:39PM
I prefer the traditional definition of AI: Anything a computer can't do right now.
'Cause as soon as a computer is able to solve a problem it magically becomes NOT AI!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @10:54PM
Everything involving a computer or software is AI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:50AM
We forgot to add blockchain and crispr. Sorry for the omission. -- Hacker
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @11:41AM
A new concept in panopticon. What could go wrong.
(Score: 2) by The Shire on Monday December 10 2018, @12:56PM (1 child)
Is that Mr Tuttle or Mr Buttle.
What could possibly go wrong?
(In case you dont get the reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film)#Plot [wikipedia.org] )
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 10 2018, @02:45PM
Just put the AI on the no-fly list, then you should be safe.
(Score: 1) by Guppy on Monday December 10 2018, @03:38PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqN3Ur-wP0 [youtube.com]
Requires: Self-Aware Machines
Cost: 500
Effects: Halves maintenance costs for facilities. If your Police rating allows use of police, counts as an extra police unit in every base.