Examining the spatialities of artificial intelligence and robotics in transitions to more sustainable urban mobilities

Valdez, Miguel and Cook, Matthew (2024). Examining the spatialities of artificial intelligence and robotics in transitions to more sustainable urban mobilities. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography (Early access).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2024.2432308

Abstract

Robots now allow artificial forms of intelligence to be present in cities, generating unanticipated mobilities and new forms of urban life. In the article, the introduction of autonomous delivery robots in the English city of Milton Keynes provides a point of departure to interrogate how the spatial dynamics of sociotechnical transitions are inflected by the distributed cognition and non-human agency of artificial intelligence (AI) when deployed in urban contexts. A case study drawing on non-intrusive observations and documentary approaches follows robots in space, conceptualising urban robots as actuators of distributed non-human cognition whose operation and diffusion are subjected to complex spatialities. Thematic analysis is used to draw out topographical and topological features of the spatialities of AI, and the case shows robots are present in a territory (e.g. a city) but exceed territorial boundaries, thus requiring complementary spatial imaginaries to investigate their geographies. The authors conclude that the types of power at work in the implementation of AI and robots cannot be captured adequately by scalar relations and territorial units, and must be considered transversally in topological networks where reach matters. Consequently, topographical conceptions of fixed Cartesian space must be complemented by relational and topological spatial imaginaries of AI.

Plain Language Summary

Robots are now being deployed in cities. Their artificial intelligence is subject to learning processes which are not entirely controlled by their creators. The interaction of robots and humans in public urban space is a matter of interest as humans, robots and cities are currently learning to live with each other. Those learning processes matter because the use of urban robots has potential impacts on sustainability, social justice and economic development. In this paper we research the interaction of robots and urban spaces by analysing their introduction to the English city of Milton Keynes and their subsequent introduction to other cities across the UK.

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