Posthuman City Making in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Federico Cugurullo, Associate Professor in Smart and Sustainable Urbanism, Trinity College Dublin

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is profoundly changing our cities, but many of these changes are invisible. In this lecture, we will observe how AI is transforming urban governance and city making, triggering the formation of unprecedented and risky posthuman dynamics. A “posthuman turn” can be seen in contemporary practices of anticipatory governance whereby distant urban futures are algorithmically foreseen by AI systems, in ways that escape human understanding. Above all, posthuman tendencies can be found in the very composition of governance networks, with artificial and not only human intelligences now shaping the act of governing and the planning process.

Overall, the aim of this lecture is to explain, in theory and practice, the emergence of a posthuman urban governance, with a focus on its risks and challenges, particularly in relation to urban planning and the development of cities. Drawing on international case studies, we will learn about major ethical issues, including large-scale trolley problems, that require new thinking and strategies to preserve human agency and accountability in the governance of future cities. In keeping with the spirit of both critical theory and engaged research, we will eventually discuss a potential way forward and a scenario in which AI aligns with a sustainable urbanism.

Speaker Information

Federico Cugurullo is Associate Professor in Smart and Sustainable Urbanism at Trinity College Dublin. His research is positioned at the intersection of urban geography, political philosophy and experimental urbanism, and explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is influencing urban governance and planning, thereby impacting the sustainability of cities. Empirically, he has done extensive research in the Middle East and Southeast Asia on many experimental cities including Masdar City, Hong Kong and The Line. Theoretically, Federico is interested in unpacking the notion of AI from an urbanistic perspective, and in fleshing out the conceptual implications of AI-mediated urban spaces, such as the “end of the city” hypothesis introduced in his monograph Frankenstein Urbanism (Routledge 2021). He is a co-editor of Artificial Intelligence and the City: Urbanistic Perspectives on AI (Routledge 2023).