#Artificial Intelligence

We zijn trots bij de Hogeschool van Amsterdam met de benoeming van lector Nanda Piersma tot kroonlid van de Sociaal-Economische Raad (SER). De ministerraad stemde vrijdag in met haar benoeming. Het is de eerste keer dat een lector kroonlid wordt van de SER.

Piersma is benaderd vanwege haar expertise op het gebied van digitalisering. Volgens de SER is digitalisering in steeds meer kwesties actueel. Piersma is lector Responsible IT bij de HvA. Ook is zij wetenschappelijk directeur van het HvA Centre of Expertise Applied Artificial Intelligence. Daarnaast is Piersma betrokken bij verschillende landelijke netwerken rondom datawetenschap zoals het platform Praktijkgericht ICT-onderzoek (Prio) en de Nederlandse AI coalitie (NLAIC). Lees meer.

The fifth and final ICC City Lab will take place June 14 - 23. This special edition will focus on Local Ecosystems Mobilisation and Urban Innovation following feedback received from cities and experts on previous ICC City Labs.

The City Lab will launch on June 14th with sessions open to the ICC community and the public. Week 1 will be dedicated to mentor led Thematic Network sessions, where the ICC Mentor Cities will present successful solutions and good practices implemented in their cities. During week 2, the Peer Reviews sessions and Transversal Network sessions on Open Data and Public Procurement will be in the limelight. The closing event is scheduled for June 23rd.

As ICC mentor, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region will contribute to the following sessions:

• Thursday, June 16, 11.30-12.30 Mentor session Amsterdam Metropolitan Region: Building Talent Development Ecosystems (open to ICC community)
• Tuesday, June 21, 12.00-13.30 Public session 2 – Artificial Intelligence – Redefining Urban innovation (open to the public; registration possible via the this link)
• Wednesday, Jun 22, 10.00-11.30 Transversal workshop on Public Procurement (open to ICC community)

Joining a session
Are you a stakeholder from the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region and would like to participate in any of the sessions dedicated to ICC community?  Please send a short email to Cornelia Dinca via cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com indicating which session(s) you would like to join in order to receive the relevant calendar invite(s).

For more information and the complete program please visit: https://www.intelligentcitieschallenge.eu/events/5th-icc-city-lab

IoT has a fluid state now; as we live and interact in an increasingly connected reality. We also see this evolving into new extremes, such as the discussions about Web3, the metaverse, and digital twins. At ThingsCon we feel the need to extend this discourse into understanding more about what is the real//real and what is virtual//real. 9 & 10 June the ThingsCon will meet again in person after two online editions in Rotterdam to exchange the latest insights and mark this new reality.

This evening is all about using datadriven approaches, datascience & AI for good

With Jene van der Heide on:
Can artificial intelligence grow a lettuce crop completely autonoomousy?
Wageningen University and Research (WUR) focuses on the domain of healthy food and living environment. Our mission is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. This mission can’t be achieved without developing and deploying emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, molecular sensors and robotics. In this talk I will introduce to you the five scientific research programmes and three investment themes which are highly innovative and contribute directly to this mission. And dive a little bit deeper into two programmes which might interest you as a member of the sense makers community: (1) Data Driven & High Tech and (2) Digital Twins.
 
second speaker TBA

Trustworthy AI Working groups are made up of community members who come together to work on technically focused projects that aim to build more Trustworthy AI. They meet from September 2022 through April 2023.

Trustworthy AI is artificial intelligence that is helpful — rather than harmful — to human beings. For us, this means two things: human agency is a core part of how AI is built and integrated and corporate accountability is real and enforced. AI  impacts nearly every digital technology we interact with today, and how we approach AI determines how much privacy, safety, trust, transparency, and fairness we create for ourselves and one another online and off.

We think of AI Builders as people who create TAI and machine learning (ML) products, like data scientists, developers, engineers, and product and project managers. 

We think of Civil Society Actors as people outside government and industry working in their local and global communities through art, journalism, policy-making, research, scholarship, activism and technical literacy efforts, who care about the impact of artificial intelligence.

These communities convene to promote Trustworthy AI through building better tools and technology and to think critically about how they impact our local and global societies.

More than ever, our online lives and societal issues are interconnected, and Artificial Intelligence is at the nexus. We know what’s at risk if AI is not trustworthy: our safety, security, privacy, and equality. 

But at Mozilla, we don’t shy away from tackling big issues — like ensuring the technology embedded in our daily lives helps, rather than harms, humanity. 

We are welcoming submissions from potential project leads who would like to join a Trustworthy AI Working Group and have an interest and/or expertise in either:

• Building a prototype of a tool or technology that promotes Trustworthy AI for the Building Trustworthy AI Working Group. 
• Launching a project or community of practice that helps civil society actors understand and promote Trustworthy AI as an essential part of their work for the Civil Society Actors for Trustworthy AI Working Group.

As we seek to support the MozFest community in building more tools and technology that promote Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, we would like expert AI Builders to work alongside highly engaged Civil Society Actors in envisioning a more equitable automated future.
Will you join us? Propose a Project

De komende jaren pakt Europa haar rol op het gebied van digitalisering en technologisering. Er komen maar liefst 19 Europese wetten aan die stuk voor stuk net zo ingrijpend zijn als de AVG. Tijdens een webinar op 2 juni van 16.00 - 1700.00 uur leert u van Jonas Onland (VNG) wat dat voor uw organisatie betekent.

De Europese wetten hebben veel impact op de macht van de techbedrijven. Maar ook op de manier waarop de slimme stad wordt ontwikkeld. Maar zijn we wel goed voorbereid op de komst van die nieuwe wetten? En wat houden ze precies in? Wat zijn de gevolgen van die wetten voor de ontwikkeling van smart cities? Zijn bedrijven en gemeenten voorbereid?

Daarover geeft Jonas Onland (Programma leider Digital Transformation & Europe VNG) op 2 juni 2022 een presentatie én gaat met u in gesprek.

Datum: 2 juni van 16.00 – 17.00 uur

Locatie: Online (u ontvangt een dag van tevoren de link)

Deelname gratis

MELD JE NU AAN

Heeft u vragen voor Jonas Onland? Stel ze dan alvast via het aanmeldformulier.

For 23 weeks I have published weekly episodes of the series Better Cities. The role of digital technology on this site. I have edited and compiled these episodes in an e-book (88 pages). You can download this for free via the link below. The book has 17 chapters that are grouped into six parts:
1. Hardcore: Technology-centered approaches
2. Towards a humancentric approach
3. Misunderstanding the use of data
4. Ethical considerations
5. Embedding digitization in urban policy
6. Applications (government, mobility, energy and healthcare)
7. Wrapping up: Better cities and technology

Kom op donderdag 19 mei naar de eerste Metaverse Meetup in Amsterdam en laat je verwonderen door de nieuwe werkelijkheid van de Metaverse. Samen met experts gaan we in gesprek over welke invloed deze nieuwe dimensie van het internet kan hebben op ons leven. Het evenement is een samenwerking tussen gemeente Amsterdam en Sharing Cities Alliance.

Programma:
16.00 inloop
16.15 opening door Douwe Schmidt (Digitalisering & Innovatie, Gemeente Amsterdam) en Harmen van Sprang (co-founder Sharing Cities Alliance)
16.30 presentaties door de sprekers (info volgt)
18.00 borrel
19.00 afsluiting

Over de metaverse
Biedt de metaverse ons nieuwe kansen voor de toekomst of is het een bedreiging voor ons opgebouwde bestaan? Is het een plek van en voor ons allemaal of bepalen platformen steeds meer hoe we leven, werken en spelen? Het fenomeen metaverse spreekt tot de verbeelding van velen maar roept ook veel vragen op. Gemeente Amsterdam wil op een verantwoorde manier inspelen op deze technologische veranderingen.

Over dit evenement
Tijdens dit gratis evenement verkennen we samen met Amsterdammers hoe we de metaverse zo kunnen vormgeven dat deze een verrijking is van ons leven en van onze stad. Aan de hand van de inspirerende sprekers vanuit verschillende organisaties duiken we dieper in het thema. Elke spreker vertelt kort over zijn of haar visie en kennis over het onderwerp en gaat in gesprek met het publiek.
Na afloop drinken we met elkaar een borrel en praten we na over hoe jouw metaverse eruit ziet.

Meer info
https://www.sharingcitiesalliance.com/

Do you have an innovative initiative in the field of applied Artificial Intelligence? Then submit your innovation for the Dutch Applied AI Award 2022!

This award has been handed out during the annual Computable Awards since 2020 and is an initiative of Computable (the platform for ICT professionals), De Dataloog (the Dutch podcast about data and AI) and the Centre of Expertise Applied Artificial Intelligence of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

A jury (the award is not a public prize) - consisting of five experts in the field of Applied AI - selects five initiatives from all the entries with a chance of winning the Dutch Applied AI Award. After a pitch round in De Dataloog, the jury decides on the winner. The five nominees will all get a platform to present themselves and their initiative in a broadcast of the well-aired podcast. The Dutch Applied AI Award is not only a prize, but also a prize of recognition!

Do you want to compete for the Dutch Applied AI Award 2022? Then submit your innovative AI application! Deadline: Friday, July 1, 2022.

The award will be handed out during the Computable Awards on Wednesday 5 October 2022

May 12, 6 pm, join us for the KICK-OFF SURPRISE PARTY, where we will reveal the hottest AI and HPC Innovations while enjoying cocktails made by a robot bartender. Shaken not stirred. 🥂

What to expect?
See with our eyes how technology brings your ideas into 3D universes.
How AI is training itself to become smarter.
How AI will transform the future of the fashion industry.
...But let’s not reveal too much 😏

Attend the event to say goodbye to our first showcasing startups and celebrate their success gained through the work with Hyperion Lab.
And meet the new startups to rock the stage of our showcase program.

😎 Drinks and food on us! You come with enthusiasm.

🚀 Sign up today with the link below!
https://events.hyperionlab.nl/kickoff-spring

Hyperion Lab is a community-driven project aiming to become the go-to place for AI and HPC innovations.
Our space hosts startup innovations from all around Europe, supporting them with hardware and expertise.
In addition, we host training and events related to the AI and HPC community.
Our mission at Hyperion Lab is to bring together the Dutch and International AI and HPC community within a large-scale smart city in Amsterdam South East. Join our community!

The 21st episode of the Better cities – the contribution of digital technology-series is about priorities for digital healthcare, often referred to as eHealth.

The subject is broader than what will be discussed here. I won't talk about the degree of automation in surgery, the impressive equipment available to doctors, ranging from the high-tech chair at the dentist to the MRI scanner in hospitals, nor about researching microbes in air, water and sewerage that has exploded due to the covid pandemic. Even the relationship with the urban environment remains somewhat in the background. This simply does not play a prominent role when it comes to digitization in healthcare. The subject, on the other hand, lends itself well to illustrate ethical and social problems associated with digitization. As well as the solutions available in the meantime.

The challenge: saving costs and improving the quality of care

The Netherlands can be fortunate to be one of the countries with the best care in the world. However, there are still plenty of challenges, such as a greater focus on health instead of on disease, placing more responsibility for their own health on citizens, increasing the resilience of hospitals, paying attention to health for the poorer part of the population, whose number of healthy life years is significantly lower and, above all, limiting the increase of cost. Over the past 20 years, healthcare in the Netherlands has become 150% more expensive, not counting the costs of the pandemic. Annual healthcare costs now amount to € 100 billion, about 10% of GDP. Without intervention, this will rise to approximately €170 billion in 2040, mainly due to an aging population. In the meantime, healthcare costs are very unevenly distributed: 80% of healthcare costs go to 10% of the population.

The most important task facing the Netherlands and other rich countries is to use digitization primarily to reduce healthcare costs, while not forgetting the other challenges mentioned. This concerns a series of - often small - forms of digital care. According to McKinsey, savings of €18 billion by 2030 are within reach, if only with forms of digitization with proven effect. Most gains can be made by reducing the administrative burden and shifting costs to less specialized centers, to home treatment and to prevention.

Information provision

There are more than 300,000 health sites and apps on the Internet, which provide comprehensive information about diseases, options for diagnosis and self-treatment. More and more medical data can also be viewed online. Often the information on apps is incomplete resulting in misdiagnosis. Doctors in the Netherlands especially recommend the website Thuisarts.nl, which they developed themselves.

Many apps use gamification, such as exercises to improve memory. A good example of digital social innovation is Mirrorable, a program to treat children with motor disorders because of brain injury. This program also enables contact between parents whose inputs continuously help to improve exercises.

Process automation

Process automation in healthcare resembles in many respects automation elsewhere, such as personnel, logistics and financial management. More specific is the integrated electronic patient file. The Framework Act on Electronic Data Exchange in Healthcare, adopted in 2021, obliges healthcare providers to exchange data electronically and prescribes standards. However, data exchange will be minimal and will only take place at a decentralized level to address privacy concerns. The complexity of the organization of health care and the constant discussions about the content of such a system were also immense obstacles. That's a pity because a central system lowers costs and increases quality. Meanwhile, new technological developments guarantee privacy with great certainty. For example, the use of federated (decentralized) forms of data storage combined with blockchain. TNO conducts groundbreaking research in this area. The institution applies the principles of federated learning along with the application of multi-party computation technology. These innovative technologies enable learning from sensitive data from multiple sources without sharing this data.

Video calling

The recent eHealth monitor of the RIVM shows that by 2021 almost half of all doctors and nurses had had contact with patients with video calling, while this hardly happened in 2019. Incidentally, this concerns a relatively small group of patients. In the US there was an even larger increase, which has now been converted into a sharp decline. It seems that in the US primary health care is reinventing itself. Walgreens, the largest US drugstore chain, will begin offering primary care in 1000 of its stores. Apparently, in many cases, physical contact with a doctor is irreplaceable, even if (or perhaps because) the doctor is relatively anonymous.

Video calling is not only important for care provider, but also for informal caregivers, family and friends and help to combat loneliness. Virtual reality (metaverse!) will further expand the possibilities for this. TNO is also active here: The TNO media lab is developing a scalable communication platform in which the person involved (patient or client), using only an upright iPad, has the impression that the doctor, district nurse or visitor is sitting at the table or on the couch right in front.

Self-diagnosis

The effectiveness of a remote consultation is of course served if the patient has already made a few observations him- or herself. 8% of patients with chronic conditions already do this. There is a growing range of self-tests available for, for example, fertility, urinary tract infections, kidney disorders and of course Covid-19. There are also home devices such as smart thermometers, mats that detect diabetic foot complications, and blood pressure meters; basically, everything that doctors often routinely do during a visit. The GGD AppStore provides an overview of relevant and reliable apps in the field of health.

Wearables, for example built into an i-watch, can collect part of the desired data, store it for a longer period and, if necessary, exchange it with the care provider.

More advanced are the mobile diagnosis boxes for emergency care by nurses on location, such as ambulances. With a fast Internet connection (5G), specialist care providers can watch if necessary.

A small but growing group of patients, doctors, and researchers with substantial financial support from Egon Musk sees the future mainly in chip implants. This would allow not only more complete diagnoses to be made, but also treatments to be carried out. Neuralink has developed a brain implant that improves communication with speech and hearing-impaired people. The Synchron brain implant helps people with brain disorders perform simple movements. For the time being, the resistance to brain implants is high.

Remote monitoring

Meanwhile, all these low-threshold amenities can lead us to become fixated on disease rather than on health. But what if we never had to worry about our health again? Instead, the local health center watches over our health thanks to wearables: Our data is continuously monitored and analyzed using artificial intelligence. They are compared with millions of diagnostic data from other patients. By comparing patterns, diseases can be predicted in good time, followed by automated suggestions for self-treatment or advice to consult a doctor. Until then, we have probably experienced nothing but vague complaints ourselves. Wouldn't that be an attractive prospect?

Helsinki is experimenting with a Health Benefit Analysis tool that anonymously examines patients' medical records to evaluate the care they have received so far. The central question here is can the municipality proactively approach people based on the health risk that has come to light because of this type of analysis?

Medics participating in a large-scale study by the University of Chicago and the company Verify were amazed at the accuracy with which algorithms were able to diagnose patients and predict diseases ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer. In a recent article, oncologist Samuel Volchenboom described that it is painful to note that the calculations came from Verify, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which not only used medical data (with patients’ consent), but also all other data that sister company Google already had stored about them. He adds that it is unacceptable that owning and using such valuable data becomes the province of only a few companies.

Perhaps even more problematic is that these predictions are based in part on patterns in the data that the researchers can't fully explain. It is therefore argued that the use of these types of algorithms should be banned. But how would a patient feel if such an algorithmic recommendation is the last straw? It is better to invest in more transparent artificial intelligence.

Implementing digital technology

Both many patients and healthcare professionals still have doubts about the added value of digital technology. The media reports new cases of data breaches and theft every day. Most people are not very confident that blockchain technology, among other things, can prevent this. Most medical specialists doubt whether ICT will reduce their workload. It is often thought of as some additional thing. Numerous small-scale pilot projects are taking place, which consume a lot of energy, but which are rarely scaled up. The supply of digital healthcare technologies exceeds their use.

Digital medicine will have to connect more than at present with the needs of health professionals and patients. In addition to concerns about privacy, the latter are especially afraid of further reductions in personal attention. The idea of a care robot is terrifying them. As should be the case with all forms of digitization, there is a need for a broadly supported vision and setting priorities based on that.

Against this background, a plea for even more medical technology in our part of the world, including e-health, is somewhat embarrassing. Growth in healthy years due to investment in health care in developing countries will far exceed the impact of the same investment in wealthy countries.

Nevertheless, it is desirable to continue deliberately on the chosen path, whereby expensive experiments for the benefit of a small group of patients have less priority in my opinion than investments in a healthy lifestyle, prevention, and self-reliance. Healthcare cannot and should not be taken over by robots; digitization and automation are mainly there to support and improve the work of the care provider and make it more satisficing and efficient.

One of the chapters in my e-book Future cities, always humane, smart if helpful, also deals with health care and offers examples of digital tools. In addition, it pays much more contextual information about the global health situation, particularly in cities. You can download by following the link below. The Dutch edition is here.

This evening we will meet at NewBase on the Marineterrein, after a short introduction about the Metaverse (context and hype) Daniel Doornik and others will share the latest insights and their latest applications in VR, AR and MR.
There also will be the opportunity to try it out!

Really looking forward welcoming you offline again!! As there is limited catering, feel free to bring your own! Presentations usually start at 19h & end around 20.30 with "open mic" when you can share your own story/event/question.

Praat en beslis mee over de toepassing van kunstmatige intelligentie in Amsterdam. Tijdens het werklab ga je in gesprek over een concrete casus over het gebruik van een sensorenregister in de stad. Hoe moeten we daar volgens jou mee omgaan?

Een extra paar ogen is soms best handig. In Amsterdam zijn er veel extra ogen: camera’s en sensoren. Deze camera’s en sensoren zijn van de gemeente, maar ook van de buurtsupermarkt, dat grote internationale bedrijf of uw buurman. Gemeente Amsterdam wil graag weten hoeveel camera’s en sensoren er in Amsterdam zijn. Het is mogelijk om met kunstmatige intelligentie data van camera’s en sensoren in kaart te brengen. Maar hoe zit het met de privacy van Amsterdammers als zulke data worden verzameld? En is het automatisch in kaart brengen van camera’s en sensoren wel een goed idee?

Wij nodigen u van harte uit voor het KI-werklab, dé plek waar Amsterdammers met elkaar nadenken over het gebruik van slimme toepassingen in de stad. Het werklab wordt georganiseerd door Netwerk Democratie.

In this DemoDonderdag edition, we invite you to help us with steering 20 graduation research projects into valuable AI solutions for Amsterdam!

Program:
15:45 - Doors open
16:00 - Short Introduction
16:10 - Interactive Poster Session
17:00 - Networking & Snacks

Every year, we give master's students from the field of AI and Data Science the opportunity to conduct their graduation research on real-life problems together with the City of Amsterdam.

This year, we collaborate with 20 students from the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit, and the University of Twente, on topics such as measuring the accessibility of our city, creating a healthier, greener, and cleaner environment, optimizing the maintenance of public assets and infrastructure, as well as improving internal processes such as document management.

During this event, the students will present their research directions and current findings, as well as their plans for the remainder of their theses. In a poster session setup, everyone would be able to explore the different projects, enjoy short demonstrations, and have an open discussion about their favorite topics.

What we would need from you is an open mind, constructive feedback, and fresh ideas, so that together we could help all projects crystallize, and eventually, turn them into valuable AI solutions for our city.

Last but not least, this would be a moment for all of us to reconnect and meet each other in a fully physical event.

Afgelopen week is de tentoonstelling Private Eye Butler Spy geopend in Arcam. Hier zijn prototypes van 3 projecten van Responsible Sensing Lab te zien, een samenwerking van AMS Institute en gemeente Amsterdam. De tentoonstelling onderzoekt de impact van technologie in en rondom het huis.

De tentoonstelling

Toepassingen in en rond het huis worden steeds intelligenter: in plaats van een huissleutel bepalen toegangssystemen aan de hand van biometrische data of een deur opengaat. In de stad controleren scanauto’s of parkeergelden zijn betaald en registreren sensoren de drukte op straat of de luchtkwaliteit. De tentoonstelling Private_Eye_Butler_Spy onderzoekt de veranderende relatie tussen technologie en de mens. Aan de hand van verschillende thema’s verkennen bezoekers welke ethische vraagstukken en ontwerpopgaven een high-tech-toekomst met zich meebrengt.

Bezoeken

Private_Eye_Butler_Spy is gratis te bezoeken van 12 maart t/m 26 juni 2022 bij Arcam aan de Prins Hendrikkade 600.

Join us on a virtual walk through LivingLab projects at the Marineterrein and discover the power of analytics for campus development. Tom van Arman and Tom Griffioen will touch upon open (research) questions of our future Digital Society and illustrate opportunities how connected data can deliver new insights, while respecting privacy.

VU Amsterdam is bursting with data that can make teaching, administrative and facilities processes more efficient and therefore, make work and study easier and more enjoyable. So why aren’t we using it on a massive scale yet?

Tom van Arman is Smart City Architect based in the city of Amsterdam. As an urban planner and technologist, Tom uses IoT, AI, API’s and open data to as a design tool to create more liveable and inclusive cities. In 2010 he founded Tapp, an award winning smart city design agency enabling local governments and industries to bridge the gap between the built environment and new digital landscape. Tom works regularly with local governments, energy companies and mobility partners to rapid prototype solutions to solve problems for the 21st century city.

Tom Griffioen is CEO of the VU spin off Clappform. Clappform is a data analytics platform active in various sectors including the built environment, which enables companies to use Artificial Intelligence in their daily work. The flexible cloud-based platform enables the extraction of valuable insights from both structured and unstructured data. Using the AI algorithm, the data from the sensors is analysed and then visualised in easy-to-use dashboards. The visualisations are real-time and updated automatically.

Van 7-11 maart vindt MozFest plaats, een virtueel festival met een belangrijke missie: een eerlijker en beter internet voor iedereen en betrouwbare AI.

Amsterdam is sinds 2021 de thuisbasis voor MozFest wat wordt gehost door de Mozilla Foundation. Met honderden workshops, discussies en talks over onder andere open source hulpmiddelen bouwen, eerlijk omgaan met data en oplossingen voor online desinformatie en intimidatie. Ook gemeente Amsterdam zal dit jaar weer onderdeel zijn van het festival.

Over MozFest

MozFest is uniek doordat het door de deelnemers zelf wordt samengesteld. Duizenden technologen, activisten, ondernemers, academici en kunstenaars brengen in meer dan 400 sessies de meest urgente internetproblemen in kaart en werken samen aan oplossingen.

Vanuit gemeente Amsterdam zal een aantal innovatieve projecten onderdeel uitmaken van de programmering. In de vorm van workshops, discussies en talks kom je meer te weten over o.a. AI toepassingen, verantwoorde drones en digitale rechten in Amsterdam.

MozFest wordt door gemeente Amsterdam ondersteund.

Welke activiteiten organiseert de gemeente?

7 maart- 22.45- 23.45 uur
Corona Tech- Behind The Scenes door Siham El Yassini

Tijdens deze sessie wordt een documentaire getoond die inzicht geeft in het gebruik van digitale technologieën door gemeente Amsterdam aan het begin van de corona crisis. De vertoning van de documentaire wordt gevolgd door een Q&A.

8 maart – 16.00 – 17.00 uur
Responsible Drones: discussing the conditions for responsible drone use in cities (and beyond) door Hidde Kamst

Aan welke voorwaarden moeten drones voldoen om op een verantwoorde manier ingezet te worden en wat is de rol van de gemeente hierin? In deze sessie worden de resultaten van het ‘responsible drones’ onderzoeksproject gedeeld en bespreken we met elkaar de mogelijke impact van drones in de stad. De focus ligt op het concretiseren van de toekomstige impact van drones en het betrekken van bewoners bij ontwikkelingen van deze technologie.

11 maart- 15.00- 15.45 uur
Cities for Digital Rights Helpdesk & Governance Framework door Milou Jansen

Tijdens MozFest 2020 is het eerste concept voor een Digital Rights Helpdesk for Cities gepresenteerd. Dit jaar is hieruit een gesubsidieerd internationaal project ontstaan, een eerste versie van het Digitale Rechten Governance Framework opgesteld en is er een helpdesk digitale rechten voor gemeenten binnen de EU ontwikkeld. Het framework en de helpdesk bieden handvatten om digitale rechten in de stad concreet te verbeteren en te waarborgen. Tijdens deze sessie word je uitgenodigd om mee te denken over het plan en betrokken te blijven bij het thema digitale rechten.

11 maart – 16.00-17.30 uur
Building digital spaces in the public interest - Where we are and how to move forward door Sander van der Waal (Waag) en Erik de Vries

Tijdens deze sessie worden de mogelijkheden voor alternatieve sociale platforms besproken. Hoe kunnen we platforms inrichten zodat privacy gewaarborgd blijft en mensen zelf controle houden over hun data? We inventariseren met aanwezigen de componenten voor publieke digitale platformen: wat bestaat al en wat moet nog worden ontwikkeld?

Op de demo-donderdag van 3 maart om 16 uur lanceert Gemeente Amsterdam samen met World Enabled het 'Amsterdam for All'-project. In dit project meten we met behulp van kunstmatige intelligentie de inclusieve toegankelijkheid van de stad.

We kunnen bijvoorbeeld voorspellen op welke stoepen obstakels aanwezig zijn en waar een verlaagde oversteekplaats is - handig voor de communicatie over de toegankelijkheid van winkelstraten en horeca. Zo dragen we bij aan een inclusieve stad, toegankelijk voor alle Amsterdammers.

Sprekers zijn onder andere:

• Ger Baron, CTO en Directeur Digitalisering en Innovatie bij gemeente Amsterdam.
• Dr. Victor Pineda, President van World Enabled een organisatie die zich inzet voor de inclusieve toegankelijkheid van steden.
• Maarten Sukel, AI lead bij Digitalisering en Innovatie van Gemeente Amsterdam en Phd. onderzoeker bij de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Maarten zal vertellen waarom we kunstmatige intelligentie op deze manier moeten inzetten, en geeft wat tastbare voorbeelden van projecten.
• Dr. Jon Froehlich, Associate Professor in Human-Computer Interaction bij University of Washington, waar hij onder andere werkt aan Project Sidewalk. Hij zal vertellen over het project en hoe dezelfde tool wordt gebruikt om de toegankelijkheid in Amsterdam inzichtelijk te maken.

Kom je ook?

The 16th episode of the series Building sustainable cities - The contribution of digital technology reveals what can happen if the power of artificial intelligence is not used in a responsible manner.

The fight against crime in the United States, has been the scene of artificial intelligence’s abuse for years. As will become apparent, this is not only the result of bias. In episode 11, I discussed why artificial intelligence is a fundamentally new way of using computers. Until then, computers were programmed to perform operations such as structuring data and making decisions. In the case of artificial intelligence, they are trained to do so. However, it is still people who design the instructions (algorithms) and are responsible for the outcomes, although the way in which the computer performs its calculations is increasingly becoming a 'black box'.

Applications of artificial intelligence in the police

Experienced detectives are traditionally trained to compare the 'modus operandi' of crimes to track down perpetrators. Due to the labor-intensive nature of the manual implementation, the question soon arose as to whether computers could be of assistance. A first attempt to do so in 2012 in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology resulted in grouping past crimes into clusters that were likely to have been committed by the same perpetrator(s). When creating the algorithm, the intuition of experienced police officers was the starting point. Sometimes it was possible to predict where and when a burglar might strike, leading to additional surveillance and an arrest.

These first attempts were soon refined and taken up by commercial companies. The two most used techniques that resulted are predictive policing (PredPol) and facial recognition.

In the case of predictive policing, patrols are given directions in which neighborhood or even street they should patrol at a given moment because it has been calculated that the risk of crimes (vandalism, burglary, violence) is then greatest. Anyone who behaves 'suspiciously' risks to be arrested. Facial recognition plays also an important role in this.

Both predictive policing and facial recognition are based on a "learning set" of tens of thousands of "suspicious" individuals. At one point, New York police had a database of 48,000 individuals. 66% of those were black, 31.7% were Latino and only 1% were white. This composition has everything to do with the working method of the police. Although drug use in cities in the US is common in all neighborhoods, policing based on PredPol and similar systems is focused on a few neighborhoods (of color). Then, it is not surprising that most drug-related crimes are retrieved there and, as a result, the composition of the database became even more skewed.

Overcoming bias

In these cases, 'bias' is the cause of the unethical effect of the application of artificial intelligence. Algorithms always reflect the assumptions, views, and values of their creators. They do not predict the future, but make sure that the past is reproduced. This also applies to applications outside the police force. The St. George Hospital Medical School in London has employed disproportionately many white males for at least a decade because the leather set reflected the incumbent staff. The criticized Dutch System Risk Indication System also uses historical data about fines, debts, benefits, education, and integration to search more effectively for people who abuse benefits or allowances. This is not objectionable but should never lead to 'automatic' incrimination without further investigation and the exclusion of less obvious persons.

The simple fact that the police have a disproportionate presence in alleged hotspots and are very keen on any form of suspicious behavior means that the number of confrontations with violent results has increased rapidly. In 2017 alone, police crackdowns in the US resulted in an unprecedented 1,100 casualties, of which only a limited number of whites. In addition, the police have been engaged in racial profiling for decades. Between 2004-2012, the New York Police Department checked more than 4.4 million residents. Most of these checks resulted in no further action. In about 83% of the cases, the person was black or Latino, although the two groups together make up just over half of the population. For many citizens of colour in the US, the police do not represent 'the good', but have become part of a hostile state power.

In New York, in 2017, a municipal provision to regulate the use of artificial intelligence was proposed, the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act (POST). The Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a prominent US civil rights organization, urged the New York City Council to ban the use of data made available because of discriminatory or biased enforcement policies. This wish was granted in June 2019, and this resulted in the number of persons included in the database being reduced from 42,000 to 18,000. It concerned all persons who had been included in the system without concrete suspicion.

San Francisco, Portland, and a range of other cities have gone a few steps further and banned the use of facial recognition technology by police and other public authorities. Experts recognize that the artificial intelligence underlying facial recognition systems is still imprecise, especially when it comes to identifying the non-white population.

The societal roots of crime

Knowledge of how to reduce bias in algorithms has grown, but instead of solving the problem, awareness has grown into a much deeper problem. It is about the causes of crime itself and the realization that the police can never remove them.

Crime and recidivism are associated with inequality, poverty, poor housing, unemployment, use of alcohol and drugs, and untreated mental illness. These are also dominant characteristics of neighborhoods with a lot of crime. As a result, residents of these neighborhoods are unable to lead a decent life. These conditions are stressors that influence the quality of the parent-child relationship too: attachment problems, insufficient parental supervision, including tolerance of alcohol and drugs, lack of discipline or an excess of authoritarian behavior. All in all, these conditions increase the likelihood that young people will be involved in crime, and they diminish the prospect of a successful career in school and elsewhere.

The ultimate measures to reduce crime in the longer term and to improve security are: sufficient income, adequate housing, affordable childcare, especially for 'broken families' and unwed mothers and ample opportunities for girls' education. But also, care for young people who have encountered crime for the first time, to prevent them from making the mistake again.

Beyond bias

This will not solve the problems in the short term. A large proportion of those arrested by the police in the US are addicted to drugs or alcohol, are severely mentally disturbed, have serious problems in their home environment - if any - and have given up hope for a better future. Based on this understanding, the police in Johnson County, Kansas, have been calling for help from mental health professionals for years, rather than handcuffing those arrested right away. This approach has proved successful and caught the attention of the White House during the Obama administration. Lynn Overmann, who works as a senior advisor in the president’s technology office, has therefore started the Data-Driven Justice Initiative. The immediate reason was that the prisons appeared to be crowded by seriously disturbed psychiatric patients. Coincidentally, Johnson County had an integrated data system that stores both crime and health data. In other cities, these are kept in incomparable data silos. Together with the University of Chicago Data Science for Social Good Program, artificial intelligence was used to analyze a database of 127,000 people. The aim was to find out, based on historical data, which of those involved was most likely to be arrested within a month. This is not with the intention of hastening an arrest with predictive techniques, but instead to offer them targeted medical assistance. This program was picked up in several cities and in Miami it resulted in a 40% reduction in arrests and the closing of an entire prison.

What does this example teach? The rise of artificial intelligence caused Wire editor Chris Anderson to call it the end of the theory. He couldn't be more wrong! Theory has never disappeared; at most it has disappeared from the consciousness of those who work with artificial intelligence. In his book The end of policing, Alex Vitale concludes: Unless cities alter the police's core functions and values, use by police of even the most fair and accurate algorithms is likely to enhance discriminatory and unjust outcomes (p. 28). Ben Green adds: The assumption is: we predicted crime here and you send in police. But what if you used data and sent in resources? (The smart enough city, p. 78).

The point is to replace the dominant paradigm of identifying, prosecuting and incarcerating criminals with the paradigm of finding potential offenders in a timely manner and giving them the help, they need. It turns out that it's even cheaper. The need for the use of artificial intelligence is not diminishing, but the training of the computers, including the composition of the training sets, must change significantly. It is therefore recommended that diverse and independent teams design such a training program based on a scientifically based view of the underlying problem and not leaving it to the police itself.

This article is a condensed version of an earlier article The Safe City (September 2019), which you can read by following the link below, supplemented with data from Chapter 4 Machine learning's social and political foundationsfrom Ben Green's book The smart enough city (2020).

On average, software developers tend to stay in a role for less than 2 years, with the tech industry having the highest talent turnover than any other industry. The impact of lost productivity, delayed digital initiatives and time to replace developers run into the billions globally.

On 3 March, we'll be chatting with Jieke Pan, CTO EMEA & APAC at Mobiquity, about:

👉 How to connect customer pain points to individual engineering outputs, resulting in more meaningful and fulfilling work
👉 Why psychological safety and boundaries are key to a developer’s experience at work
👉 A proactive approach to structured and unstructured growth for your engineers