China's Smart Cities Are Dumb

China's much-hyped "smart cities" are turning out to be not so clever. The AI meant to optimize traffic lights has created permanent gridlock by being too polite, giving every intersection a green light simultaneously. Smart trash cans that order their own replacements have bankrupted municipal budgets by demanding new units weekly. The facial recognition system at one apartment complex repeatedly locks out the mayor for "looking shifty." The projects are technological marvels that fail at basic common sense, a classic case of solving problems that don't exist while ignoring the ones that do. Residents are nostalgic for the days of dumb cities, where a traffic jam was just a traffic jam, not the result of an algorithm having an existential crisis. -- Bohiney Magazne bohiney.com