First artificial intelligence-run city in the world
It will be in China, more specifically in the city of Chongqing, in the southwestern area of the country. It will actually be a campus city and will be the result of a project called Cloud Valley, carried out by the Chinese technology company Terminus and the Danish architecture firm BIG. The latter is one of the most avant-garde studios when it comes to urban scenarios and which has been so successful that it has opened a branch office in New York.
Last September the China Everbright Group, owner of the Terminus company, published the projects depicting the futuristic city that will be completely controlled by artificial intelligence. The whole area will be filled with sensors and devices connected to Wi-Fi that will collect data of any kind, both about the state of the surroundings such as weather conditions and pollution levels, and also about the residents’ habits.
This smart city will extend over 4 million square meters where there will be roofs full of greenery, and where the buildings’ futuristic lines will be in perfect harmony with nature. BIG studio director Bjarke Ingels said “Cloud Valley is envisioned as a city where people, technology and nature thrive together – with spaces designed for all types of life: human life, plant life, animal life and even artificial life”.
In several areas of the campus, open-air courtyards will be created to host exhibitions and sporting events, where in some cases, human beings will be entertained by robots. At least this is what you see in one of the videos showed with the project.
Everything within the smart city will be automatic, will follow AI orders and will be based on the residents’ habits without them lifting a finger. For example, all buildings will have integrated solar panels controlled by the Terminal Group software. On a typical morning, when the sun rises, the windows will “open” automatically, gradually letting the sunlight filter into the houses. After that, a virtual butler named Titan will select breakfast, choose the outfit based on the weather conditions and give the plans for the day.
“After breakfast, you step into your intelligent, fully-automated vehicle, and begin your intercity commute browsing global market news – recommended by an algorithm, of course!” explains the tech company. Basically, the more data the artificial intelligence will collect and analyzes, the more the city will be constantly updated.
It is estimated that from the beginning of the works, it will take about three years to complete the project.
