The bill, passed on Wednesday, aims to accelerate the sweeping change of regulations across various fields to support the creation of such futuristic cities.

Addressing issues such as depopulation and an aging society will be the focus of the super cities. Technologies including big data and AI will be key to successfully tackling the challenging problems.

Large amounts of data will be collected and organised from across administrative organisations.

Local governments will be selected for the ambitious projects which will launch forums with the national government and private companies to take forward the plans.

Draft plans will be created from this deep public-private collaboration that will subsequently be submitted to the state government if approved by local residents.

As with many smart city plans, there are deep concerns about the collection of personal data and what it could mean for individual privacy. Local residents are sure to want assurance that any data collection is anonymous.

A similar bill was submitted to the Diet (Japan’s decision-making institution) last year. The bill was scrapped following calls from the ruling government to review it.

The revised bill was passed on Wednesday. Given the appetite for the project across the government; the plans are now expected to progress swiftly.

(Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash)

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Rekognition was called out by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for erroneously labelling those with darker skin tones as criminals more often in a test using a database of mugshots.

Jacob Snow, Technology and Civil Liberties Attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said:

“Face surveillance will be used to power discriminatory surveillance and policing that targets communities of colour, immigrants, and activists. Once unleashed, that damage can’t be undone.”

Amazon disputed the methodology used by the ACLU claiming the default ‘confidence’ setting of 80 percent was left on when it suggests at least 95 percent for law enforcement purposes.

Orlando Police was using Rekognition to automatically detect suspected criminals in live footage taken by surveillance cameras. Despite help from Amazon, the police spent 15 months failing to get it to work properly.

“We haven’t even established a stream today,” the city’s chief information officer Rosa Akhtarkhavari told the Orlando Weekly. “We’re talking about more than a year later. We have not, today, established a reliable stream.”

Employees of Amazon recently wrote a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos expressing their concerns over the sale of facial recognition software and other services to US government bodies such as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

In their letter, the Amazonians wrote:

“We refuse to build the platform that powers ICE, and we refuse to contribute to tools that violate human rights. As ethically concerned Amazonians, we demand a choice in what we build and a say in how it is used.”

Orlando Police has now cancelled its contract with Amazon. The news will be of some relief to those concerned about the privacy implications of such big brother-like systems.

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Announced during this year’s Baidu Create conference, the companies say they will focus on areas such as the smart home, intelligent connectivity, smart mobility, and e-commerce.

Geely is a privately held global automotive group headquartered in the city of Hangzhou and is most well-known for owning the Volvo and Lotus car brands.

The long-term goal of Baidu and Geely is to accelerate the adoption of connected vehicles in both China and the rest of the world. Li Shufu, Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding), and Robin Li, Founder and CEO of Baidu, were at the announcement.

Li said: “The major advances in the history of mobility are accompanied by new changes brought about by cutting-edge technology. Geely Holding, through their years of achievements and innovations, has become a leader in China’s automotive industry.

“This strategic cooperation between Baidu and Geely, focusing on AI technology empowerment, will not only bring about more natural and convenient human-car interaction but also accelerate the intelligentisation of the automobile and mobility service industry, helping the Chinese automotive industry become a leader in the era of smart mobility.”

Shufu and Li interacted with Geely’s latest connected SUV, the Bo Yue Pro, on-stage during the event. The intelligent new vehicle is equipped with Baidu’s AI system through Geely’s SKU19 Smart Ecosystem which helps to connect people, cars, and homes.

Geely has plans to roll out the SKU19 across its portfolio.

Shufu commented: “China’s intelligent connected vehicle technology is now at the forefront of the world, bringing consumers a safe and convenient travel experience. Baidu is a leader within the AI industry in China, and also a pioneer in promoting industrial intelligence with their globally leading AI R&D capability and deep technical insight in the field of intelligent driving.

“Through strategic cooperation and resource collaboration, the two sides are committed to jointly building an intelligent mobility ecosphere to lead the future, and create a brand-new experience for users.”

Baidu continues to double-down on its AI efforts. Just last week, AI News reported that Baidu will lend its AI expertise to help with the development of Intel’s Nervana neural processor.

deepgeniusai.com/">AI & Big Data Expo events with upcoming shows in Silicon Valley, London, and Amsterdam to learn more. Co-located with the IoT Tech Expo, , & .

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Drive.ai is full of skilled personnel after being founded in 2016 by a pioneering team of graduates from Stanford’s AI lab. With AI talent in short supply, it seems Apple is considering purchasing a whole company to get the skills on its side.

Apple would not get any of Drive.ai’s intellectual property as part of the deal, only the minds behind it. While it’s unclear what Apple is considering paying for the startup, the company was believed to be valued at ~$200 million during a VC round in 2017.

The fact Apple is scoping out talent from a driverless car firm shows Cupertino’s continued interest in the area.

Back in January, Apple pulled around 200 employees off its self-driving car project which made some people question whether Cupertino had the ability (and resolve) to break into such an established industry with a minefield of regulatory needs that vary from location-to-location.

A self-driving car being tested by Apple had a rear-end collision with another vehicle last year. Fortunately, unlike Uber’s self-driving car incident, there were no injuries.

During an interview with CNN last November, Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed that his company is focused on the software side of autonomous vehicles. Acquiring talent from Drive.ai is a surefire way of boosting Apple’s in-house expertise in applying machine learning to cars.

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The study, from an international team of computer scientists, found AI can be programmed with a higher degree of morality than humans. The researchers set out to build a new type of algorithm for playing games which requires working together rather than simply winning at all cost.

Jacob Crandall, BYU Computer Science Professor and lead author of the study, comments:

“The end goal is that we understand the mathematics behind cooperation with people and what attributes artificial intelligence needs to develop social skills. AI needs to be able to respond to us and articulate what it’s doing. It has to be able to interact with other people.”

In many real world applications, AI will have to compromise and cooperate with both humans and other machines. The ability to program AIs with friendly traits is unlikely to come as much surprise, but evidence they can express them better than humans opens up new possibilities.

Crandall and his team created an algorithm called S# and tested its performance across a variety of two-player games. In most cases, the machine outperformed humans in the games.

“Two humans, if they were honest with each other and loyal, would have done as well as two machines,” says Crandall. “As it is, about half of the humans lied at some point. So essentially, this particular algorithm is learning that moral characteristics are good. It’s programmed to not lie, and it also learns to maintain cooperation once it emerges.”

Take the current negotiations between Britain and the EU as the former exits the bloc. Both sides claim to want an ‘orderly exit’, but it’s clear human emotions are involved which keeps leading to deadlocks in the talks despite time running out. AI negotiators could run through all the scenarios and find the best areas to compromise without any feelings of mistrust.

“In society, relationships break down all the time,” he said. “People that were friends for years all of a sudden become enemies. Because the machine is often actually better at reaching these compromises than we are, it can potentially teach us how to do this better.”

What are your thoughts on AI morality?

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If you live in a major city, you will be all too familiar with traffic. Many are switching to alternative methods, such as cycling, but many feel vulnerable.

Electric bikes are opening cycling to more people who may not be in the peak of their fitness or live in hilly areas where even long-term cyclists may struggle. These bikes are often faster than many people can pedal, but the increased speed can bring more danger to both rider and those around them.

BMW and Tongji University have released a concept they are calling Vision E3 Way which gives e-bike riders their own roads. These paths will be larger than standard bike lanes and have speed limits which adapt to various conditions.

“Our goal is to link sustainable and efficient mobility with a high quality of living in cities. We use new technologies as well as our creativity in order to create innovative approaches as the BMW Vision E³ Way“, explains Dr. Gerd Schuster, Senior Vice President Research, New Technologies and Innovations.

AI-based traffic management will make sure riders keep moving safely while an innovative cooling system powered by purified rainwater will keep everyone comfortable on hot days. Riders will not necessarily even need their own bike and could rent one on a daily or subscription basis.

Driverless cars should help to cut traffic in the coming years, but they’re likely a while off before mass adoption. Meanwhile, alternative solutions are needed to reduce the cars on the road, the pollution they create, and get cities moving faster than a snail.

“The BMW Vision E³ Way opens up a whole new dimension of mobility in overcrowded conurbations – efficient, convenient and safe. It works by simply creating space for two-wheel zero-emissions traffic,” explains Dr. Markus Seidel, Director BMW Group Technology Office China. “In China, more than a billion people will be living in cities by 2050. The country will become the global incubator for numerous mobility innovations such as the BMW Vision E 3Way,” Seidel adds, “after all, nowhere else is there such an urgent need for action.”

BMW is offering a practical and inventive solution to an issue found in many cities which could be deployed faster than waiting on driverless cars, their infrastructure, and the regulatory environment to enable them.

Hopefully, any city planners looking to invest in sustainable transport will give BMW’s concept some due consideration.

What are your thoughts on BMW’s vision for AI-powered bike lanes?

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