Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) may not often be associated with climate change mitigation, but its use of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing can actually play a pivotal role. Smart factories equipped with IR 4.0 capabilities can be more efficient and effective than ever before, ensuring that no energy or materials are wasted, observes Datuk Mohd Abdul Karim Abdullah, CEO of Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd. Clean energy can also be integrated with IR 4.0 to power various processes and the transport of goods to the final consumer. "Investing in research and development to bring more awareness of how technology can encourage reuse, reduce, recycle and replace principles so that there is effective use of raw materials and energy is important," he says. IR 4.0 creates more efficiency and improves the way businesses are run.

Public transportation is the central nervous system of every major city's public life. Think about the Metro in France, the Underground in London and, of course, the Subway in New York. With COVID 19 forcing a change in the way we interact with each other, public transportation has been drastically affected. In the post-pandemic world, the newly developed need to minimize the risk of infection in public spaces will increase the demand for smart transportation systems. Since public transportation systems are highly vulnerable to disease outbreaks, adopting digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) can play a key role in balancing operations with public safety measures for monitoring spread and taking corrective action at points of critical impact.

IoT is drastically changing the world for the better. There was a time when internet connectivity was available only on phones and computers. In the past decade, this focus has shifted to all technologies. Gradually, we are seeing the development of devices that connect to the internet. All these devices collect and share data to make our lives easier. You must know what IoT is by now, but for general understanding IoT is a broad umbrella.

Hayden AI creates smart city solutions purposely built for modern traffic conditions and increased urbanization. Their team originates from the autonomous vehicle space with domain experience in deep learning, computer vision, and mapping. Chris Carson, Cofounder & CEO, Hayden AI, introduced the company accordingly: "Our antiquated roads are being choked by modern technology. There's no integration of the old ways and new, and sadly, it's not just a matter of being inconvenienced, as citizens are suffering. In the last ten years alone, pedestrian fatalities in urban areas are up by 69%. At Hayden AI, we've asked ourselves, 'What can we do to reverse this trend? How can we mitigate congestion while saving lives?'"

Public transport forms the backbone of any urban mobility system, enabling cities to be more dynamic and competitive while creating more jobs. However, most cities' public bus systems are hemorrhaging riders in recent years due to slow speeds compared to options such as ridesharing services. Not to mention the continuously rising threats of transit agency budget cuts, traffic congestion and public safety. Hayden AI – a company creating smart city solutions purposely built for modern traffic conditions and increased urbanization – asking the question, What can we do to reverse this? The answer isn't bulking up on traffic enforcement, but rather, to enable smarter, more scalable enforcement.

Huawei has unveiled its new smart cities digital platform utilising artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, which it said could be used across smart public safety, environmental protection, transportation, government, education, and agriculture. Huawei's AI Digital Platform connects what it calls the brain, or command centre; the central nervous system, or network; and the peripheral nervous system, made up of sensors across a city. "Just like an operating system, the platform is compatible with different city sensors, creates a city digital twin, and supports diverse city applications," Huawei Enterprise Business Group VP Ma Yue said. The smart cities digital platform combines AI, IoT, big data, a geographic information system, video, cloud, converged communications, and security. "Huawei has also developed a middleware platform to provide services to software application partners. This is designed to help application partners quickly develop upper-layer applications to accelerate transformation and innovation in city management, city services, and industry development," the Chinese networking giant added.

Algorithms, machine learning and, more broadly, artificial intelligence (AI) promise to introduce astounding levels of efficiencies to cities' monitoring of citizens and infrastructure, their planning and governance, and their service response and decision-making. While we have yet to automate all of our planning and resource allocation decisions, advances in machine learning and neural networks, as well as our ability to collect data through even more network sensors, are bringing automation at least to certain parts of our civic problem-solving processes. One well known and somewhat contentious example is the use of predictive crime analytics to dispatch police units proactively, in anticipation of crime incidents. These tools may be branded, and even sold, under that catch-all name of artificial intelligence and packaged in smart city solutions such as the NVIDIA Metropolis platform. However optimistic we are about the potential for AI and algorithms to "do good," their positive social impact remains far from guaranteed without adequate regulation to ensure social accountability, reduction of harm, and compliance with legal rights and protections.