Hangzhou looks to AI to solve traffic problems

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE could be making an appearance in your daily commute, as evidenced by emerging applications for the technology in urban environments such the latest development in Alibaba's "City Brain" initiative. Zheng Yijiong became the first ever traffic officer to blend the artificial intelligence with good old human intuition in order to improve and regulate traffic condition throughout the city, according to China Plus. Working in Hangzhou, the birthplace of Alibaba in the eastern Chinese Zhejiang Province, Zheng became a test case in the Hangzhou government's efforts to boost itself to smart city status. Zheng was trained for two months in the "City Brain" project's traffic initiatives which is aimed at bringing Alibaba's Ali Cloud artificial intelligence capabilities for real-time traffic predictions which could help police officers better organize and plan strategies. The predictions will come complete with video and image recognition technologies.