Artificial intelligence begins to “pilot” various possibilities for urban life and urban management

In July 2017, the State Council issued a "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" to raise the development of artificial intelligence to the national strategic height. In November of the same year, Shanghai issued the "Implementation Opinions on the City's Development of a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence" and proposed the "Intelligent Shanghai (AI@SH)" initiative, marking that the artificial intelligence industry has entered the "fast track." Nowadays, city managers all over the world have turned their attention to artificial intelligence, taking advantage of the possibilities that the development of artificial intelligence can give to urban life and city management in the coming decades. From transportation and resource allocation to medical care and retirement... When AI begins to “steer”, what does city life look like? Do not have to test the driver's license to enjoy the service on the line In the fall of 2014, Stanford University launched the “100-year Artificial Intelligence Research” project, which is a long-term academic study of the field of artificial intelligence and its impact on humans, communities, and society. In 2016, a group of experts in various fields of the project released a report entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030", starting from ordinary people's urban life, focusing on transportation, public safety, the environment, and medical care. , education, community participation, etc. analyze and predict the key impact that artificial intelligence may bring in the future. Among them, the city's transportation is considered to be the first area of ​​reform. Experts believe that the speed of transition from traditional transportation systems to intelligent transportation systems may surprise many people. For example, in a few years, on the roads of many cities, it may be possible to see a driverless car traveling one by one. By then, every ordinary family will be able to enjoy the services of getting out of the house and calling the car, and then automatically driving the car will automatically put people where they want to go. Autopilot technology is not only a private vehicle's patent. In the future, people will also be expected to enjoy the services of self-driving buses, trains and ships. The concept of “transportation as a service” will gradually replace people’s past travel modes. At the same time, more and more companies will accurately deliver and deliver goods to guests through drones and vans in the future. Unmanned trucks carrying goods will move in a more compact fleet and use better routes to save fuel. US Transportation Minister Anthony? Fox even imaginatively said, "My daughter will reach the age of 16 by 2021. At that time, she may not need to obtain a driver's license, because she can use these services to meet her travel needs." For regulators, how to integrate autonomous driving technology into existing urban transportation systems is a challenge. The US Department of Transportation’s approach is to actively introduce policies to deal with this trend. In September 2016, the "Federal Policy for Self-Driving Cars" was issued, which mainly contained four aspects: First, to encourage the development and deployment of new technologies to achieve the purpose of saving more lives; Second, to eliminate technological innovation through policy guidance. Obstacles and delays in promotion; thirdly, encouraging industry cooperation, including policies, enterprises, etc., encouraging the development of new technologies and accelerating applications; and fourthly, although the states have their own autonomous driving regulations, the federal government’s policy guidelines will be state regulations. Formulate and unify supervision to provide policy recommendations. Experts believe that the involvement of artificial intelligence can help improve a mature urban transportation system and ensure that people have the right to “make choices” when they travel. For example, someone can choose other travel options when they don’t want to drive, or “drive” to their destination in the safest way. After people make choices, artificial intelligence's prediction mechanism can fully consider the time cycle, trend, and proximity, taking into account the space's proximity, integrate different data and different influence factors, so as to judge the traffic in advance. Road and traffic density in densely populated areas. This allows the management department to prepare safety measures in advance, conduct diversions and diversions, and ensure the safety of urban traffic in an orderly manner. As a result, the commuting time that people are accustomed to commuting will become a period of relaxing enjoyment, and headache congestion will no longer cause problems. From a long-term perspective, this can also encourage people who live far from home to work more efficiently and reduce the need for parking lots, thus radically changing the face of modern cities. Just after the elevator opened, several elevators were already waiting. University of Washington computer scientist Edward? Lazowska is quite optimistic about the smart interaction between smart devices and the human and physical world in the future. He believes that as AI goes deep into all aspects of the city, the ubiquitous sensor brings with it a greater amount of data that will enable the individual and collective action model planning to become a reality, as well as the allocation of resources to the city, the protection of the environment, and the management of the enterprise. influences. Founder of the California Institute of Communications and Information Technology Larry? Smar also wrote in The New York Times about the unimaginable effects of sensors in the past. In fact, in recent years, some large-scale industries, technology companies, and startup companies have already made relevant investments to provide corresponding products and services. For example, there is a NestLabs company in Silicon Valley. Its founder is Tony Apple’s former executive. Federer. He has hired more than 100 engineers from a number of high-tech companies and introduced a digital thermometer that integrates sensors, machine sensing, and network technology. It not only senses the temperature, but also senses the movement of people in and out of the room, and then adjusts the room temperature accordingly to achieve energy savings. According to statistics, 40% of the total energy consumed in the world is consumed by buildings. About 40% of the energy consumed by buildings in the world is consumed by HVAC systems. Therefore, installing such a thermometer in a building in a city can provide strong support for the sustainable development of the city. In addition, smart buildings with corresponding sensors and probes will be safer and more convenient than ever. For example, the data center of a building can be used to know the real-time location of specific people in this building and how they are moving by installing security probes. Taking the management and dispatch of elevators as an example, the management of a building can also be upgraded to a higher level. For example, people just finished a meeting and left the conference center. At the same time, dozens of people are waiting for the elevator. In the past, everybody could press a button to wait for an elevator to come down. However, if you can use the security probe to see so many people waiting, you can immediately adjust multiple elevators to improve the efficiency of energy and operation. Prior to this, the United States IBM also launched the SmarterPlanet (smarter planet) plan to use artificial intelligence to develop more efficient systems for the public power grid, food transportation, water protection and other fields. In Dubuque, Iowa, USA, IBM conducted a long-term project with the local government to improve the city’s water, electricity, and traffic conditions through sensors, software, and Internet computing technologies. Among them, IBM installed digital water meters for 151 households in a pilot project, used software to monitor the use of tap water and methods, informed residents of ways to save water, and warned of possible leaks. After only one year of operation, the project achieved a saving of 7%. Take Dubuque, which has a population of about 60,000 people, for example, which is equivalent to saving 65 million gallons of water every year. Being seen as the hope of "saving" older people In the report "Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030", the application of artificial intelligence in the medical field is also mentioned. Experts believe that in the context of the removal of policies, regulations, and business barriers that have been trusted by doctors, nurses, and patients, the application of artificial intelligence will be automated from clinical decision support, patient monitoring, counseling, surgery, or patient care in the future. , management of the medical system and many other aspects have improved health and quality of life for millions of people. In 2017, 14 cancer treatment organizations from the United States and Canada have deployed the Watson computer system, which will select the appropriate treatment based on the genetic fingerprints of patients' tumors. It is reported that oncologists upload DNA fingerprints that may be mutated or develop malignant tumors in patients' tumors to the Watson cloud system, and they begin to search the database for approved or experimental cancer treatment drugs. "Watson" has a strong clinical database of medical sciences and specific cancers and practicable treatment options, so it can reduce the time needed to find therapeutic drugs for cancer patients to a few minutes. The progress and speed of artificial intelligence in visual data analysis will also contribute to improving efficiency in the medical field. Banavar, deputy director of cognitive computing at IBM Research, pointed out that human workers need to handle massive amounts of visual information, such as a radiologist who needs to diagnose 16 radiographs per minute. As artificial intelligence enhances the understanding of images, the judgment of the text and meaning of certain special elements will help improve diagnostic efficiency. As one analyst puts it, "Machine learning will replace the need for manual data processing and data monitoring. The time savings can also promote the development of data strategies." According to the survey, the United States plans to use 23.5% of artificial intelligence hospitals within two years, and another 24.7% of hospitals plan to apply artificial intelligence within three to five years. Based on this calculation, about 35% of medical institutions plan to use artificial intelligence technology within two years, and more than half of the hospitals planned to use artificial intelligence within five years. In addition, with the increasing number of elderly people in the city, there is a high demand for the development of retirement and home robots. Just as industry and manufacturing can't wait to find ways to automate, robots have also been seen as the hope of “saving” older people. At the "Future has come" artificial intelligence conference held last year, a nursing staff from Hong Kong represented the nursing homes in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province and asked the conference: "Is there a mature elderly care robot, 100,000 units, and 200,000 units, I will now You can sign a contract.” At that time, the conference scene was awkward, but nobody dared to respond. Although such tasks as injections and manicures cannot be handed over to robots, experts point out that these machines also have advantages that humans can hardly compare. The most obvious of these is that they can provide services 24 hours a day. If used at home, the elderly can enjoy in-place retirement without moving into the pension facility. Relying on technological development, possessing a robot that can be automatically cleaned every day will improve the overall quality of the environment when elderly people and friends gather together, so that people do not need to be distracted by these trivial matters and can concentrate more on communicating with people, socializing, and social contact. . In addition, unlike dependence on carers, family members, and children, asking for help on a device will not hurt the self-esteem of the elderly. They will still feel that they can do many things independently. In a speech on robots, Jenay Beer, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of South Carolina, shared a letter from a user who said in an email that an old man had used the robotic care robot they made. Grateful. She said that compared to letting humans take care of the living, she prefers to live with robots and do housework. That makes her feel good. Many practitioners are convinced that artificial intelligence can provide some help to take care of elders, improve their independence, and reduce their isolation from society.