'I know your favourite drink': Chinese smart city to put AI in charge

Dec 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From robots delivering coffee to office chairs rearranging themselves after a meeting, a smart city project in China aims to put artificial intelligence in charge, its creators told a conference this week - raising some eyebrows. Danish architecture firm BIG and Chinese tech company Terminus discussed plans to build an AI-run campus-style development in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing during an online panel at Web Summit, a global tech conference. The project named Cloud Valley, plans to use sensors and wifi-connected devices to gather data on everything from weather and pollution to people's eating habits to automatically meet residents' needs, said Terminus founder Victor Ai. "It's almost coming back to this idea of living in a village where, when you show up, even though it's the first time you're there, the bar tender knows your favourite drink," said BIG founding partner Bjarke Ingels. "When our environment becomes sensing and sentient ... we can really open up that kind of seamlessness because the AI can recognise people coming. So it can open the door, so they don't have to look for their key cards."