By invitation of the City of Amsterdam and a dear friend and frequent collaborator Bas Verhart, I traveled to Dubai to help moderate a panel around Generative AI in the context of cities at COP28. Together with a dream team of collaborators and four invited panelists, we hosted an interactive session meant to help participants in the audience think differently about their experience of using generative AI tools.
To this effect, we prepared an interactive demo for participants to access from their personal devices. In this exercise, everyone got to walk through a couple of steps around self-discovery, by applying part of the famous "Ikigai" framework for personal development. In under two minutes, users would input characteristics of things they love and are good at, and have those lists expanded upon with the help of GPT-4.
This system is under development and subject to future blog posts and applications. We are learning that participants love going deeper into self-understanding with the help of AI and want to grow our capabilities in facilitating this at scale.
Panel participants discussed AI's role in combating climate change, emphasizing geospatial analysis for policy and local solutions. Key concerns include the uncertain impacts of climate change on infrastructure and societies, the potential for AI to reinforce short-term thinking, and ensuring equitable AI access. Proposed actions for cities include investing in sustainable data infrastructures, fostering public-private partnerships, and prioritizing transformative, behavior-focused AI applications.
