China's smart cities streets ahead, but same AI challenges apply the world over
Each night in the darkest hours, a fleet of drones patrols the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, watching over potentially dodgy areas such as underground station exits and the riverside to deter any would-be criminals.
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The nightly routine has been operating since last year, according to a report published in April by the city's police bureau, which detailed its use of
artificial intelligence to plan patrol routes.
According to the report, the AI puts a laser focus on patrolling Nanjing's blind spots – the areas generally ignored by human patrols.
The city's experience is part of China's efforts to scale up the use of AI in urban management, to better handle complex challenges brought by the massive scale of city life and rapid urbanisation.
The Chinese leadership has long viewed AI as a tool for transforming the economy and refining its governance, launching the
'smart cities' initiative and other programmes over the past decade.
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Despite this rapid progress, analysts warned that China's AI governance faces challenges – including privacy protection and limited community involvement – that are mirrored in other parts of the world as governments race to adopt the technology.
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