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AbstractThere is a growing feeling that artificial intelligence (AI) is getting out of control. Many AI experts worldwide stress that great care must be taken on the so-called alignment problem, broadly understood as the challenge of developing AIs whose actions are in line with human values and goals. The story goes that ever more powerful AI systems are escaping human control and might soon operate in a manner that is no longer guided by human purposes. This is what we call the AI-out-of-control discourse which, in this paper, we critically examine and debunk. Drawing on complementary insights from political theory, socio-technical studies and Marxian political economy, we critique the supposed animistic and autonomous nature of AI, and the myth of the uncontrollability of AI. The problem is not that humanity has lost control over AI, but that only a minority of powerful stakeholders are controlling its creation and diffusion, through politically undemocratic processes of decision-making. In these terms, we reframe the alignment problem thesis with an emphasis on citizen engagement and public political participation. We shed light on the existing politics of AI and contemplate alternative political expressions whereby citizens steer AI development or stop it in the first place.

The development of projects for new eco-cities is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. Alleged eco-cities are being built across a variety of spaces via processes of urbanisation triggering substantial environmental, social and economic impacts. This article investigates how new eco-city projects interpret and practice urban sustainability by focusing on the policy context that underpins their development. The article argues that projects for new eco-cities are shaped in loci by policy agendas tailored around specific economic and political targets. In these terms, the ideas and strategies of urban sustainability adopted by eco-city developers are understood as reflections of broader policy priorities. The case study employed in this article, Masdar City, reveals how the Emirati eco-city initiative is the product of local agendas seeking economic growth via urbanisation to preserve the political institutions of Abu Dhabi. Following the economic imperatives set by the ruling class, the Masdar City project interprets sustainability as ecological modernisation and practices urban environmentalism almost exclusively in economic terms. The article shows how the developers of Masdar City capitalise on sustainability by building an urban platform to develop and commercialise clean-tech products, and concludes that the Emirati alleged eco-city is an example of urban eco-modernisation: a high-tech urban development informed by market analysis rather than ecological studies.

ABSTRACT
Over the last couple of decades, global urban politics has experienced the increasing emergence of ambitious megaprojects aiming to create sustainable cities capable of facing severe ecological and economic crises. This essay argues that the genesis of eco-cities is grounded in a strong wave of utopianism that can have potential negative socioecological implications, and by looking at the current development strategies of Abu Dhabi, it aims to explore the interrelations among utopia, sustainability, and urban politics. Using empirical material, Abu Dhabi's development plans are examined to understand how visions of the good society and of the good city are theorized and integrated into the policy agenda. The focus is on Estidama, a program for social and urban change based on the sheik's dream of transforming Abu Dhabi into a sustainable global city, and on its main incarnation: Masdar City. In the analysis of convergences and divergences with western utopianism, this essay explains how images of the ideal city are used to boost the local economy and fulfill the political interests of the ruling class. Ultimately, the reasons behind the association eco-city/ideal city are elucidated, and the role of utopia in the quest for the sustainable society is questioned.

Introduction: situating smart cities / Andrew Karvonen, Federico Cugurullo and Federico Caprotti -- Grounding and contextualising -- Realising smart cities : partnerships and economic development in the emergence and practices of smart in Newcastle, Australia / Robyn Dowling, Pauline McGuirk and Sophia Maalsen -- Dissecting the frankenstein city : an examination of smart urbanism in Hong Kong / Federico Cugurullo -- Ordinary Chinese smart cities: the case of Wuhan / Robert Cowley, Federico Caprotti, Michele Ferretti and Chen Zhong -- The free zone and smart-global urbanization in Philadelphia / Alan Wiig -- Integrating and aligning -- Actually-existing smart Dublin : exploring smart city development in history and context / Rob Kitchin, Claudio Coletta and Liam Heaphy -- Smart cities as strategic actors : insights from eu lighthouse projects in Stavanger, Stockholm, and Nottingham / Håvard Haarstad and Marikken W. Wathne -- Smart goes green : digitalising environmental agendas in Bristol and Manchester / Kerry Burton, Andrew Karvonen and Federico Caprotti -- Smart urbanism and the visibility and reconfiguration of infrastructure and public action in the French cities of Issy-les-Moulineaux and Nice / Marie Veltz, Jonathan Rutherford and Antoine Picon -- The transnational smart city as urban eco-modernisation : the case of masdar city in Abu Dhabi / Federico Cugurullo and Davide Ponzini -- Contradicting and challenging -- Acknowledging the idiot in the smart city : experimentation and citizenship in the making of a low-carbon district in Santiago de Chile / Martín Tironi and Matías Valderrama -- A smart equivocation: co-laboration and subsidiarity in Munich's smart city consortium / Ignacio Farías and Claudia Mendes -- Parramatta smart city and the quest to build Australia's next great city / Sarah Barns and Andrea Pollio -- From participation to startup urbanisation? : re-situating open data in Lisbon / Luís Carvalho and Mário Vale -- experiencing and encountering -- Barcelona : from corporate smart city to technological sovereignty / Hug March and Ramon Ribera-Fumaz -- Smart innovation at the margins : learning from Cape Town and Kibera / Nancy Odendaal -- Innovating for an aging society : insights from two Japanese smart cities / Gregory Trencher and Andrew Karvonen -- Life in smart Seoul : the female factor / Sofia Shwayri -- Conclusions: the long and unsettled future of smart cities / Andrew Karvonen, Federico Cugurullo and Federico Caprotti -- Index

This chapter presents readers with an opportunity to engage with the concept of uncertainty through the lens of cities and urbanism. Operating within an environment of profound uncertainty relating to the future of humanity, contemporary cities present divergent narratives of hope and despair. They are chronically underfunded and over-burdened, home to deeply divided communities and decrepit infrastructure, and struggling with chaotic unplanned growth and chronic pollution. Yet they have the capacity to assemble social, material and technical actors and relations in novel, experimental and collaborative ways so as to respond to these emergent challenges. These insights lead us to the question, what can we learn from cities about living with, planning and governing uncertainty? The contributing authors answer this question by presenting five perspectives on urban uncertainties. Ranging from looking at the street level and ordinary uncertainty to looking at the governing of uncertain technological futures, to discussing the ethical outcomes of governmental solutions to climate change, the authors excavate the varying ways in which uncertainty stimulates experimental forms of urban development and governance, and with what social and political implications. They conclude with optimism: if a progressive, equitable and ethical socio-political milieu is fostered in cities, it is possible to effectively tackle urban challenges in uncertain cities.

This book explores in theory and practice how artificial intelligence (AI) intersects with and alters the city. Drawing upon a range of urban disciplines and case studies, the chapters reveal the multitude of repercussions that AI is having on urban society, urban infrastructure, urban governance, urban planning and urban sustainability

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as an impactful feature of the life, planning and governance of 21st-century cities. Once confined to the realm of science fiction and small-scale technological experiments, AI is now all around us, in the shape of urban artificial intelligences including autonomous cars, robots, city brains and urban software agents. The aim of this article is to critically examine the nature of urbanism in the emergent age of AI. More specifically, we shed light on how urban AI is impacting the development of cities, and argue that an urbanism influenced by AI, which we term AI urbanism, differs in theory and practice from smart urbanism. In the future, the rise of a post-smart urbanism driven by AI has the potential to form autonomous cities that transcend, theoretically and empirically, traditional smart cities. The article compares common practices and understandings of smart urbanism with emerging forms of urban living, urban governance and urban planning influenced by AI. It critically discusses the limitations and potential pitfalls of AI urbanism and offers conceptual tools and a vocabulary to understand the urbanity of AI and its impact on present and future cities.