
Exploring Urban Artificial Intelligences and Robotic Futures
Date and time: 17 February 2025, 16:00-18:00 CET
Speaker: Matthew Cook, Open University
Title: Exploring Urban Artificial Intelligences and Robotic Futures
Where: Salongen, KTH Library, Osquars backe 31
This event is Co-sponsored by Digital Futures
Abstract: Machine learning (artificial intelligence) enabled robotic systems can be found in many UK cities. For instance, ‘Starship’ robots form the basis of a grocery delivery service in Milton Keynes (MK), a new town located some 100 kilometres north of London. Proving invaluable in the Covid19 pandemic, as they were able to convey essential supplies to vulnerable residents in situations where it was unsafe for humans to do so, the delivery robots now form part of the eco-system of urban technologies and transport services in MK.
This talk will critically examine the emergence of such urban machine learning enabled robotics, consider their potential to disrupt extant transport systems and open pathways to more sustainable urban futures, and discuss some of the urban planning and governance challenges such new technologies potentially pose.
Bio: Professor Matthew Cook founded and leads the Future Urban Environments research team at the Open University, UK. His research interests are in the planning and governance of urban development and technological change. His work is situated on the intersection of human geography and science and technology studies and focuses on the emergence of service orientated innovations in cities, smart city developments and more recently urban artificial intelligences (machine learning), their planning and governance.