Who Owns the Curb? Robots, Sidewalks & the Soul of the City

What happens when nobody works except the robots? Why did Bill Gates say AI, which is at the heart of robotics, is "our biggest threat?" Even Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei admits we "only understand 3% of how they work." Yet, the promise of AI and robots to address delivery, industrial processing, transportation and even loneliness, our greatest community disease, has pushed them into cities, especially Intelligent Communities.

Large cities like Los Angeles and Seoul have hundreds of PMRs (public area mobile robots) on the street. Once confined to college campuses, robotics firms are trying to scale the market commercially.  What's the challenge? Unlike bridges or power plants, designed to precise human specifications, AI systems, upon which robots depend, are "grown" from vast databases through processes their own creators cannot interpret. How do urban planners, who view sidewalks as the "new frontier," work with cities dominated by automotive vehicles and roadways? The promise and challenges are enormous. In one of Lou's typically wide-ranging discussions guests move from the technical, to the practical to a discussion about "the soul" of the city and why trust is essential to scaling and living with robots. 

In this edition of The INTELLIGENT Community Podcast, Soul of the City ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Bern Gursh, Executive Director, Urban Robotics Foundation & John G. Jung, Co-Founder, ICF.