The DOI matches its Crossref record; 111 of the 112 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Urban Artificial Intelligence: From Automation to Autonomy in the Smart City
Open accessAbstract
Technological innovation is constantly reshaping the materiality and mechanics of alleged smart cities. Recently, innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) in the shape of self-driving cars, robots and city brains, has been pushing the so-called smart city to morph into an autonomous urban creature which is largely unknown. In this emerging strand of smart urbanism, artificially intelligent entities are taking the management of urban services as well as urban governance out of the hands of humans, operating the city in an autonomous manner. This paper explores, in theory and practice, how the development of AI intersects with the development of the city. The contribution of the paper is threefold. First, the paper advances a theoretical framework to understand AI specifically in urban contexts, developing the concept of urban artificial intelligence. Second, it examines the case of Masdar City, an Emirati urban experiment, to show how the genesis of urban artificial intelligences is part of a long-standing process of technological development and a politico-economic agenda which together are enabling the transition from automation to autonomy. Third, it proposes a research agenda to investigate what the paper terms the autonomous city.
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“AI applications related to the latter theme also include the management of transport systems of cities in terms of shared autonomous mobility-on-demand [245], autonomous cities [246], and autonomous vehicles (e.g., Ref. [[247], [248], [249]]).”
From Smarter eco-cities and their leading-edge artificial intelligence of things solutions for environmental sustainability: A comprehensive systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [246]
In the citing paper
“We refer to this strand of AI as urban artificial intelligences-where AIs are embodied in urban spaces, urban infrastructures, and urban technologies, which together are turning cities into autonomous entities operating in an unsupervised manner [15].”
From The sustainability of artificial intelligence: an urbanistic viewpoint from the lens of smart and sustainable cities (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
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“After all, AI has already entered our cities, and it is therefore essential to critically examine and question its urban sustainability potential [15].”
From The sustainability of artificial intelligence: an urbanistic viewpoint from the lens of smart and sustainable cities (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
In the citing paper
“The key difference between automation and autonomy is that an automated technology repetitively follows patterns previously established by a human intelligence, while an autonomous technology establishes its own patterns, seldom repeating the exact same action [15].”
From The sustainability of artificial intelligence: an urbanistic viewpoint from the lens of smart and sustainable cities (2020) · cites this paper as [15]
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Citations
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“…knowledge calls for further empirical research on artificial intelligence in urban governance, with a focus on sustainability intended not in a one-dimensional way so to capture the full spectrum of social, environmental and economic variables that can be affected by AI (Floridi et al., 2018, 2020).”
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Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
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“As several scholars have pointed out, this is a decision which could imply harming (and even killing) the passenger(s) or pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists (Goodall, 2014; Lin, 2016; Awad et al., 2018; Bonnefon et al., 2019).”
Background
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- Bostrom, 2017, Superintelligence
- Conrad, 2007, Heart of Darkness
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
IoT for Smart Cities: Machine Learning Approaches in Smart Healthcare—A Review
Ghazal, T. M., Hasan, M. K., Alshurideh, M. T., Alzoubi, H. M., Ahmad, M., Akbar, S. S., Kurdi, B. H. A., & Akour, I. A. (2021) · Future Internet · doi:10.3390/fi13080218 · Cited by 676
Alahi, M. E. E., Sukkuea, A., Tina, F. W., Nag, A., Kurdthongmee, W., Suwannarat, K., & Mukhopadhyay, S. C. (2023) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s23115206 · Cited by 740
Bibri, S. E., Krogstie, J., Kaboli, A., & Alahi, A. (2024) · Environmental Science and Ecotechnology · doi:10.1016/j.ese.2023.100330 · Cited by 536
Artificial Intelligence for Student Assessment: A Systematic Review
González-Calatayud, V., Prendes-Espinosa, P., & Roig-Vila, R. (2021) · Applied Sciences · doi:10.3390/app11125467 · Cited by 503
“AI is applied to different contexts, so we can see applications to architecture in smart buildings and smart cities [6], smart mobility [9], medicine [10–12], smart industry (the 4th industrial revolution, as some authors [13] remark) and also smart education or smart classrooms [14].”
BackgroundSon, T. H., Weedon, Z., Yiğitcanlar, T., Sanchez, T. W., Corchado, J. M., & Mehmood, R. (2023) · Sustainable Cities and Society · doi:10.1016/j.scs.2023.104562 · Cited by 451
Metadata
- Authors
- Cugurullo, F.
- Affiliations
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Cugurullo, Federico
- ORCID
- Cugurullo, Federico
- Venue
- Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2020-07-30
- Volume
- 2
- ISSN
- 2624-9634 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3046496872
- Cited by
- 290
- References
- 112
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 16.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Sustainable Cities (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Royal Geographical Society (Dudley Stamp Memorial Award)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Smart Cities and Technologies
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Keywords
- smart cities, autonomous cities, autonomous vehicles, City Brain, urban governance, municipal services, Masdar City, smart urbanism
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