How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Build Smart Cities

If you have seen the Terminator movies, you have probably wondered whether your smart refrigerator will one day become self-aware and plot a world takeover with other artificial intelligence-powered tech. But Ayesha Khanna, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence solutions firm ADDO AI, does not see AI that way. Instead, she sees the possibilities in applying AI to make people's lives better, particularly in building smart cities that are people-focused in terms of giving everyone access to basic services and goods. "More than anything else, AI has the potential to democratize access and make growth inclusive," she said in her keynote during the Southeast Asia Development Symposium 2021 organized by the Asian Development Bank in March. Countries need to make sure their cities are livable since each second, five people join the ranks of the middle class, most of them through migration to cities, said Khanna.