The rise of AI urbanism in post-smart cities: A critical commentary on urban artificial intelligence

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Vol. 61; no. 6; pp. 1168 - 1182
• Main Authors: Cugurullo, Federico, Caprotti, Federico, Cook, Matthew, Karvonen, Andrew, MᶜGuirk, Pauline, Marvin, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2024; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: 21st century; Agents (artificial intelligence); AI urbanism; Architecture; Arkitektur; Artificial; Artificial intelligence; Arts; Autonomous cars; autonomous city; Cities; Experiments; Fiction; Governance; Humaniora och konst; Humanities; Konst; Life; post-smart cities; Robotics; Robots; Science and technology; Science fiction; Science fiction & fantasy; Smart cities; smart urbanism; Software agents; urban AI; Urban areas; Urban planning; Urbanism; Vocabulary; urban AI; 自治城市; smart urbanism; 智慧城市化; 后智慧城市; 人工智能; AI 城市化; 城市人工智能; autonomous city; AI urbanism; post-smart cities; artificial intelligence
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/00420980231203386

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as an impactful feature of the life, planning and governance of 21st-century cities. Once confined to the realm of science fiction and small-scale technological experiments, AI is now all around us, in the shape of urban artificial intelligences including autonomous cars, robots, city brains and urban software agents. The aim of this article is to critically examine the nature of urbanism in the emergent age of AI. More specifically, we shed light on how urban AI is impacting the development of cities, and argue that an urbanism influenced by AI, which we term AI urbanism, differs in theory and practice from smart urbanism. In the future, the rise of a post-smart urbanism driven by AI has the potential to form autonomous cities that transcend, theoretically and empirically, traditional smart cities. The article compares common practices and understandings of smart urbanism with emerging forms of urban living, urban governance and urban planning influenced by AI. It critically discusses the limitations and potential pitfalls of AI urbanism and offers conceptual tools and a vocabulary to understand the urbanity of AI and its impact on present and future cities.