Will artificial intelligence correct or perpetuate historic
discriminatory practices in cities? Will urban heat mitigation
strategies and new ecosystem amenities be deployed fairly across all
neighborhoods? Will new mobility technologies be accessible to all
citizens and localities? Will new policing or security technology
deployment have intended or unintended bias? Who will pay to bring urban
infrastructure into the 21st century? Who owns the data
collected by the myriad smart devices in the internet of things and who
is trusted to oversee the use of these data? Who is responsible when
technology does not function as intended?
As cities begin a deep, but slow, technological transformation, these
are some of the questions that emerge and that will require open
debate, broad stakeholder engagement, and new legal and policy
frameworks. This talk does not answer any of these questions, but it
puts them in the context of accelerating urbanization and the broad
challenges and opportunities cities will face in the coming decades, and
it offers a plausible framework for engaging with the intellectual
dilemmas they pose in terms of access to, benefits of, and the ultimate
goal of deploying new technologies in cities.
Bio:
Elie Bou-Zeid is professor of civil and environmental engineering. He
was the director of the Metropolis Project for urban technology at
Princeton University until 2022. He is also associated faculty with the
Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and the Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering department. An expert in geophysics and
atmospheric sciences, his research is broadly focused on measurement and
modelling of material and energy transfers in the lower atmosphere,
with applications to urban environmental quality, building energy
efficiency, wind energy production, and polar sea ice fluctuations. He
is editor of the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, and a co-author of
the NSF-sponsored report on Urban Climate and Resiliency aimed at
understanding the role of megacities on global climate, and developing
strategies to equitable improve urban climate-resilience and and reduce
urban atmospheric greenhouse emissions. Bou-Zeid holds a bachelor’s
degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in environmental
engineering and water resources from the American University of Beirut,
and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins
University.