Hangzhou’s seven million residents are reaping enormous traffic reduction benefits thanks to artificial intelligence called City Brain.
City Brain was developed by Alibaba, which makes its home in the eastern Chinese city. Once ranked fifth among China’s most-congested cities, Hangzhou is now 57th on the list, according to a CNN report. The AI invention gathers video from intersections and GPS data on the locations of cars and buses across Hangzhou. It analyzes that data in real time and coordinates more than 1,000 road signals to prevent or lessen gridlock. Commute times have shortened. And first responders can get their fire trucks ambulances to the scene of an emergency twice as quickly as they did before.
City Brain is a comforting example of how artificial intelligence will benefit humanity without eliminating jobs. Quite the opposite, in fact, as human workers will enjoy more efficient ways to getting to and from their jobs and ultimately have more time to spend in leisure activities away from work.
What downsides (privacy concerns, for example) might result from using AI to control city traffic?