Abstract
Technology companies are planning with governments in African cities to construct and advance smart city technologies. In Egypt, the government is already planning for 20 smart cities where digitized infrastructure, services and planning will be implemented. With the advent of Covid-19, prospects for new digital services and infrastructural transformations have been accelerated, while bringing new opportunities to combine more disruptive innovations in urban planning with advanced technological capacity. In this context, a team from the Urban AI network in collaboration with the Smart and Future Cities Laboratory for Sustainable Urban Solution (SFCL Lab), an urban planning innovation hub at Cairo’s Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams university, are working on developing a framework for Urban AI focused on ecological capacity and environmental and social justice. The aim of the framework is to ensure and guide equitable and ethical distribution of forward resources. This charter can be deployed in urban planning, design, and policy projects across Cairo, the continent and beyond. In this workshop, we seek insights and discussions at the intersection of AI and urbanism, to support the development of an African urbanism AI charter via a design research method combining experts and community innovators focused on the following questions: How can AI play a role in enabling smart cities in Africa to be not only technologically equipped but ecologically sustainable, environmentally ethical, and socially just? How might AI applications across scales support, and be accountable for, environmental justice and social equity? What guiding principles can support planners, regulators, and innovators in doing this work? The workshop will co-construct insight and ideation for a broader Urban AI framework for Africa, building on insights and applications from the communities and cultures represented by the workshop participants.
