A 'smart city' uses technology and data to solve social problems faced by cities. Proponents of smart technology assert it creates efficiencies, improves sustainability, boosts economic development, and enhances users' quality of life. Yes, smart technology can achieve these goals. However, smart technology is not universally beneficial. It may increase surveillance,  produce and re-create social inequalities, and create new security risks.

 

Although many people view artificial intelligence and algorithms as neutral and apolitical, research continues to find they can have as much gender or racial bias as humans--often reflecting the implicit bias and values of the humans who create them. For example, software the criminal justice system uses to predict recidivism discriminates against people of color (ref), and when searching for jobs online, women are less likely to be shown ads for high-paying jobs (ref).

 

Smart City Game draws on these critical insights to challenge players to think about and start conversations about the consequences proposed social interventions have on communities. As mayor of a smart city, you'll have to decide between high-tech, community-based, and private industry solutions. Each of these types of solutions has benefits and limitations, and all of the 180 solution cards you'll choose from are social interventions that cities currently use, have been proposed by technologists, or are prospective solutions imagined by smart city experts.

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Smart City Game was created by Renee Shelby, Mariah Mills, and Kamryn Harris for an Experimental Media project studio in the Digital Media program at Georgia Institute of Technology.

 

April 2018.