How AI Is Transforming Our Cities

15:53Bogotá Mayor:We're working on building that and just creating the space to co-create with the public. They don't want curated solutions. You don't come and give them an off-the-shelf product, but you allow them to come and create with you and then you get that trust. So the risks are mitigated in that way. And of course, through this AI forum that our cities are now part of, I think we'll be able to do it better.

16:14Nairobi Mayor:Well, Mayor Galan, I want to hear your thoughts on that same question, risks versus reward, but by pointing to a specific way your city is already using AI. And you introduced the Chitiko chatbot in 2022. So this is Bogota's virtual assistant. It's been used by more than 1.5 million people since its creation. It was launched for two reasons. You wanted to enhance citizen engagement and provide 24-7 access to government services. So how did you think about approaching the launch of that chatbot, thinking about the potential rewards for your residents, but also the risks that came along with it?

16:50Bogotá Mayor:Well, in that case, Chatico doesn't have as much risk as I understand because being just an assistant and responding to the citizen's demands, it's easier to control that. I mean, there's no risk of information that can be handled that relates to a person that has risk of, for example, a case of privacy or things like that. So in that case, I think that works. But we have another example. We used AI with Bloomberg, with the help of Bloomberg, basically, understanding that we have medical records of kids. Bogota also has a challenge in terms of hunger and malnutrition in kids. And we understood that we have the records in which we have the information that could help us predict cases of malnutrition.

17:33Bogotá Mayor:We have the information, but we need to know how to use that information to have that prediction. So we use AI for that. We've had a good result, like 69 % prediction results in success. But there's a challenge because you're using medical records. You're using medical records of kids. So how to guarantee that you use professionally and responsible those records and they're protected. So that's a challenge. And also because we don't have regulation at the national level that has moved at the same pace as the technology. So we don't have regulation for that. So we had to create in our program standards to guarantee that the way we handle the information would protect the information.

18:22And I think that, as you were mentioning, showing the results, showing the impact this has had in Bogota,

18:30Bogotá Mayor:69 % of prediction success in cases of malnutrition, is an important part of building trust so that people understand that technology can help us a lot, even though it has risk that we have to control, we have to oversight.

18:43Nairobi Mayor:Well, you bring something interesting up because in the U.S., and you know this, Mayor Jones, the regulatory environment around AI is fractured, I think is a safe way to describe it. Where are you finding the gaps between how you want to apply AI technology and what the regulatory, the guidance the regulatory environment provides for you around what you can and can't do? or should and shouldn't do.

19:11San Antonio Mayor:Right. Well, and I think part of the challenge as well is, you know, we're not just dealing with what is happening at the federal level. In Texas, we have some laws that, as I mentioned earlier, kind of on reproductive health care and on voting, where, frankly, folks want to make sure their data is not shared, right, based on the unique implications because they live in Texas. And so making sure that we are accounting for those and helping those tech companies understand the way in which we, again, want to make full use and get the benefit of these, but understanding there are some unique risks that are, in fact, geographic that we need to account for.

19:48San Antonio Mayor:I mean, certainly something that we're also dealing with in our community, well, across the country, but really some, again, unique state laws that make it especially challenging is what's happening with immigration enforcement. Again, so you have a lot, all of this relies on how good the data is. And for folks that want to make sure they still have as much agency as possible to ensure that their data is protected, erased, et cetera, is really, I think, the balance that is so important, especially in an instance where they don't even know they're giving it away, right? I think that's the piece here that is so important as we move forward.

20:24Nairobi Mayor:Well, we got this email from George in New York City who asks, how can cities use AI to optimize energy use and reduce those emissions? Whenever we talk about artificial intelligence, the environmental impact comes up globally. water usage for AI systems is projected to cost up to 6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawals by 2027. Between 2023 and 2024, Bogota experienced one of the worst droughts in Colombia's history. But it's a leading tech city with at least 29 data centers. So Mayor Galan, how are you thinking about and planning around those environmental concerns?

21:02Bogotá Mayor:Well, we have an advantage for data centers as well because we have Bogota is in an altitude of 2 ,600 meters above sea level. So the weather is like 55 degrees Fahrenheit the entire year. So the demands for energy to reduce temperature in data centers is much lower than other areas. Here in Spain, for example in Madrid, we are 600 meters above sea level, so that's a different story. In the U.S., when you are at sea level, I mean, you have the winter, you have summer. In Bogota, it's the same weather the entire year. So we have an advantage for that. That's one of the reasons we are promoting to have more data centers in Bogota.

21:47Bogotá Mayor:But we understand that that's just one example of the challenges we have with climate change. and we have to deal with how to use AI to predict, for example, droughts in the area, to predict challenges in terms of not only fires as well, for example, that affects us. So we have to work with both areas or both sides of the story, how to use AI to predict challenges in terms of climate change, but also how to use that to provide a better response when we have situations. When we had the drought in Bogota in 2024, we used technology to reduce, for example, consumption of water, to provide information in real time for people so that they would understand the challenges we had, and how to change behavior and reduce consumption.

22:39Nairobi Mayor:But do you receive pushback from residents who say, you're asking me to reduce my water consumption, but I see these data centers that are taking up so much water and they feel a tension there. Not yet. Not yet. We will have.

22:52Bogotá Mayor:I'm sure we'll have that. But I think if we use AI to improve overall the way we handle, for example, a source of water, we'll see support for that. Because I understand that, and the city understands that, that AI will give us a lot of opportunities to improve the way we handle challenges like climate change. So we have to give information to be transparent about it, to inform, to have people participate and provide ideas for the solutions. But I think we can deal with both things as long as we give information in a timely manner to people.

23:29Nairobi Mayor:Well, let's go to a message we received from a longtime resident of Nairobi.

23:33Bogotá Mayor:My name is Dr. Mo Tega and a longtime resident of Nairobi. As you know, climate change is real. And as a result of this changing climate, Nairobi has been faced by heavy rains and flooding during the time that you have been governor. That is since 2022. Sadly, under your leadership, hundreds of Nairobi citizens have drowned and thousands have been displaced from their homes because of floods. What accountability do you have to the citizens of this city and county? And what solutions are you offering?

24:08Nairobi Mayor:Governor Sakaja, at least 21 counties in Kenya have been hit by flooding this year, including the city of Nairobi. So how do you respond to that message about accountability?

24:17Bogotá Mayor:21 counties in Kenya have been hit by flooding, and I really am grateful for that question because it really puts the challenge that we're facing in real terms. Nairobi is a young city compared to the other cities here. It started in the late 1800s. And even from 1901, 1902, because Nairobi is based on three main rivers, Nairobi River, Ngong River, and Madhari River. And that was during colonialism when the city was coming up under the British Empire. And a lot of the communication then was that this is a flat plain. Let's not build it here. It will not be sustainable. Well, you've not had that high level of rainfall in maybe 10, 15 years until the El Nino and La Nina started all of those climate episodes.

25:03Bogotá Mayor:and just recently we've had the highest strain that we've ever had. Two years ago, we had a big loss of lives. More than 40 people lost their lives when the rivers burst their banks. And, of course, the level of rain was more than before, 160 mm in a day, which would normally be what happens in a month. And so what we started to do and what we're doing is, number one, restoring the riparian areas of our rivers. We have a very ambitious project on the biggest river in Nairobi, Nairobi River, where we are restoring 54 kilometers, actually 27 kilometers, creating trunks here on both sides, 27, 27, that's 54, that will be able to hold the capacity for the next 50 years.

25:46Bogotá Mayor:And so we're not the generation that is saying it always happened and it will always happen and Nairobi was not supposed to be here. But you're saying, what can we do? We have moved people from 10 meters close to the river, depending on where they are, 30 meters, Just last week, I marked the president's residence, the wall for demolition, the state house, because it's on the riparian. And we're saying everybody needs to move. And so we're being bold about it. Climate change is there with us. We've never had that level of rainfall, but we must adapt. A lot of our drains were built for smaller capacity of water.

26:22Bogotá Mayor:You know, when you talk about, you know, 450 millimeters diameter, where you need actually 950 or 1.2 meters. And so we are doing that, of course, with the challenge of the resources, because we don't have the money to do all of that at a go. But we're glad that on the major rivers, we've been able to make a lot of progress. And the recent trends, I thank God that, you know, in as much as we lost lives and one life is too many, if we had not taken action two years ago, we'd have lost many, many more lives. So it's a real challenge that we deal with. Yeah, but I'm curious from each of you very briefly, as you're talking to residents who are concerned about the environmental impact, and you say that leaning into this technology, building more data centers, allowing water usage, allowing increased

27:08Nairobi Mayor:energy uses, it's actually feeding the cycle of climate change and perhaps speeding up some of the worst weather disasters that we've been seeing in recent years. Mayor Jones, how do you talk to them about the benefits of AI when what they see are the environmental impacts and what they feel are the environmental impacts?

27:28San Antonio Mayor:So San Antonio, I think, has a little bit of a unique perspective on this. San Antonio is a military city, USA. And so we, I think, often are thinking about the national security implications constantly, just given the large military presence we have there. We have the second largest cyber presence outside of Washington, D.C. We host NSA West, 16th Air Force, for example. And so I think folks recognize that when you look at what's happening at the geopolitical level, we need to make these investments to ensure that we can compete economically. But also, if things were to happen in other parts of the world, you need this level of technology.

28:07San Antonio Mayor:So to your point, though, what does that mean for the average citizen? I think we are trying to be thoughtful about the negotiations that we have with these folks as they come into our communities, right? What does cooling look like? Certainly recycled water is the preferred, right? Certainly not potable water. That then requires, though, that we're investing in the purple pipe infrastructure that would allow for that. I think we're also demonstrating the ways in which we're using AI, though, to minimize the maintenance needed on some of these. But to your point, I mean, what we have seen as the mayor, actually, we own both of our utilities.

28:42San Antonio Mayor:So I think that's a different perspective here as well. We own, we're the largest municipally owned energy company, energy utility rather, and we own our water system. So have seen firsthand the way in which climate change is actually shortening the life cycle of some of our pipes, which is the third largest water pipe infrastructure in the country behind New York and LA. So what it does, though, is then drive an additional conversation about density and the importance of making sure that we're being thoughtful so we don't have to, we're not maintaining and creating infrastructure that we might not need if we did a little bit smarter planning, which AI can help us do.

29:15Nairobi Mayor:Well, we have to go to another break. But before we do, we got this email from Kay. The first problem AI should be charged with is to determine how these data centers can produce their own clean, green energy. Cooling systems that do not deplete our potable water or pollute our environment with their operations, including tech waste. Thanks for that message. We'll be back with more in a moment.

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30:26Nairobi Mayor:Let's get back to our conversation with our Global Mayor Roundtable. We're discussing the risks and benefits of AI being used in cities across the globe. I want to turn now to the labor market. The McKinsey Global Institute suggests AI could add$13 trillion to the global economy by 2030. So that means a significant number of jobs face automation and disruptions that will ripple through local economies and the global economy as well. AI is already causing significant disruptions, with some estimates suggesting that 92 million jobs could be replaced by 2030. That's according to the World Economic Forum.

31:02Nairobi Mayor:So I want to hear from each of you how you're approaching that issue. And Mayor Jones, San Antonio recently commissioned the Economic Security Advisory Group with local tech CEOs. AI is a big focus of that work. How does it align with the desire to protect jobs and people's economic viability?

31:20San Antonio Mayor:Yeah. So I commissioned that economic security advisory group to ensure that our community was focused. And that looks at AI, quantum technology, so communications, sensing, as well as computing, biotechnology, as well as space manufacturing. San Antonio has some unique advantages in each of those areas. And so we are going to be most competitive, though, if we can strengthen the connections among those four and then certainly recruit those to our community. I commission that because we needed a group of folks with deep expertise in this to think about what are the investments we need to make to be competitive in those areas and how can we ensure that we are also we have policies that best support that as well.

32:05San Antonio Mayor:everything from our economic development deals that we are structuring to ensure that if we wanted to not just bring wholesale companies, but also how can we grow some of those in our own community? And so I'm thankful as we look at economic security more holistically that that's a group that's going to help us do that. I think what's important as part of that as well is we're we're balancing not just economic security, but also ensuring that the resources that come into our community help us make smart decisions when it comes to what we are all trying to do, which is, you know, plan for the future of our city.

32:43San Antonio Mayor:So if I may, you know, one of the things that, as we're kind of top of mind for us, at least, is the upcoming budget season. And so one of the things I've really asked the team to look at is what, where, where are we in terms of realizing our digital twin. Our digital twin is, again, what does it look like above ground? What does it look like below ground? But as we are solving some of these challenges, you talked about$13 trillion coming into the economy. We know that$13 trillion is not going to be evenly distributed, which is the real challenge. And certainly in San Antonio, the third most impoverished major city and one of the most economically segregated big cities.

33:22San Antonio Mayor:But how can we do this smartly? And how can we use some of these tools to help our community understand why we're making the investments that we're making? And part of that is, again, what a digital twin can do, and AI tools can do that. So it's not just, hey, how can we help Susie get from point A to point B faster? But how can I plan for a city that not only gets them from point A to point B faster, but oh, by the way, increases the GDP of this community by 10 or 15 % over the next 10 years? That's a different problem to solve. And so I think my real concern, as you've heard here as well as how do we ensure that people are not getting left behind and we're not exacerbating these inequities that contribute to communities that, well, the benefits of AI not being evenly distributed.

34:05Nairobi Mayor:Well, we're seeing AI disproportionately affecting younger entry-level workers. We got this email from Nathan in Indiana who writes, I'm 21 and I luckily got a job at the Postal Service right before the job market crash. Unfortunately for me, though, it's hard to see a future for myself. I have other aspirations than carrying mail, but going to college right now seems impossible. Student debt sounds like it could destroy me with what degree I want to pursue. So this is from someone writing from the U.S. But Mayor Galan, the median age in Bogota is just around 30, 31 years of age. And so you have a relatively young population as well.

34:40Nairobi Mayor:So how are you thinking about disruptions in the labor market and how it affects people's ability to not just be born in Bogota, but live and build a life there?

34:51Bogotá Mayor:Okay, we have a challenge in Bogota because today, even though we have a mainly young population, the city has had a reduction in birth, amazing reduction. We have, how do you say that, like natality? I don't know how to call that.

35:08Nairobi Mayor:So your birth rate has dropped.

35:10Bogotá Mayor:Birth rate has dropped to the same as Tokyo, for example, in Bogota. So basically we have a young population now, mainly because of migration from Venezuela in the last six to seven years. So we have a challenge as well, not only for young people, for people who are looking for a job when they're 50, 55, and they're facing a job market that requires some knowledge in tech and things like this. So we have to work in both sides for young people with the universities, with the private sector. We have many areas and many, I would say, commissions in which we work between the city government, the national government, and the local businesses to understand the challenges we have and how we have to act each other to face those challenges.

35:54Bogotá Mayor:As I was mentioning before, Bogotá is a city with many, many universities. So the students are an important part of the population of the city. So with the universities, we're working also to work in terms of changing the programs and including skills that will be required in this new environment in terms of the economy.

36:13Nairobi Mayor:So you want to build an education pipeline in Bogota, but how do you also ensure that the jobs are there to receive those students when they come out of college?

36:22Bogotá Mayor:Well, as I was mentioning, Bogota is a city that has an important part of the economy is related to technology. And it's growing. Now we're building a campus for innovation and technology between the city and the Chamber of Commerce of Bogota. And I think that's one of the reasons we're doing that is because we understand we have to expand that already innovation part of the economy. We have to expand it. So we understand that we have to work both in provide the skills for the people that need to guarantee the assets job and also to create the incentives to have a growth in the economy related to technology and innovation.

37:01Bogotá Mayor:But also one part of this discussion is how to work with those who are working for the city. Bogota has 150 ,000 people roughly working for the city government. And that's another part of the discussion, how to handle that, how to include in the process for people who work for the government to acquire skills that will help them work for the city. This is going to be a challenge also for cities.

37:25Nairobi Mayor:So are there concerns that as you're using more artificial intelligence technology that some of those city positions will disappear because it's more efficient to use artificial intelligence? It's a risk, I think.

37:39Bogotá Mayor:But we can work to have a broader scope of the impact these workers have for the city. If they acquire skills related to AI, we can have a higher impact, a bigger impact. So I think if we don't do nothing, if we stay put with this, we're going to have challenges of losing people that work for the government. But if we work with them and with the universities and everybody, we will be able to guarantee that these people acquire the skills that will provide better services for citizens in cities.

38:12San Antonio Mayor:At the end of the day, let me just say, right, like we are focused on serving people. And if we can do that better in a cheaper way and in a more efficient way, then we should do that. At the same, to your point, though, we've got to take care of the workers that are impacted. But continuing to do things the old way just because, you know, it makes us feel good, frankly, doesn't serve the people well. And it's not in an era of, again, budget deficits and things moving quickly. How we can best serve our folks is what we're focused on. And part of this is the job that we all have, which is chief communicator, explaining why and how and who's going to be impacted and how we're trying to take care of people.

38:55San Antonio Mayor:So that's the part of it, to your point, so people aren't scared of this but can embrace it and understand how it's ultimately the best use of their tax dollars.

39:02Nairobi Mayor:Well, I think there's fear to a degree, but there's also this message we got from Desiree who says, companies and municipalities can use all the AI they want, but there has to be a human who takes responsibility and is held accountable for that usage when things go wrong. As they say, a computer can't be held accountable. So Governor Sakaja, the accountability question, you said there are a lot of young people in Nairobi and they want radical transparency. So how are you assuring them that their relationship to their government is not going to be only through a computer or technology, but there will be a human being who is accountable at the end of the day.

39:39Bogotá Mayor:For sure. I think even as I speak to the earlier question, the shift is not jobs disappearing, it's jobs changing. And because it's jobs changing, the same technology that we're going to deploy will help even those workers do their work better. So it's about creating retraining pathways, skilling the people, and that's what we're doing in Nairobi, making sure our young people have access to information technology, to some of these skills at a very low level, what we call the ward level. We are building innovation hubs at all those levels to give them the skills because we must think about the future of work.

40:10Bogotá Mayor:But it is true. For instance, let me take sanitation workers. AI is not going to take the job away. It's going to help them be more efficient in mapping their routes, in how they collect garbage, etc. There are some jobs that will be at risk. Clerical admin work, a lot of customer service work will be at risk. But you then move that category of staff to, you know, other areas that the skill can work. So we see Nairobi as a builder city. Nairobi is what we call Africa's Silicon Savannah. And so supporting our startups will actually create more jobs, you know, in areas that then will be relevant.

40:46Bogotá Mayor:But there must be a human face. There must be interaction. There's front-facing work that can never be replaced by AI. And it's really even supporting our schools. because unless you think of the future of work, you'll be employing people or rather training people for future unemployment. And so you must look at what the market needs in five years, in six years, and change the curriculum at this stage.

41:10Nairobi Mayor:I want to turn now to a message we got from a conference participant here at the Bloomberg City Lab in Madrid.

41:15Bogotá Mayor:Hello, my name is Khalil Green. I am a content creator and activist. The question I have today relates to AI and surveillance. When I arrived in Madrid today, for the first time in my many visits to Spain, I had to scan my fingerprints and take a biometric photo. And I'm just curious how mayors are thinking about protecting the privacy of citizens and upholding their rights while also integrating AI as a tool for security and surveillance within cities. And what can we as citizens do to ensure that our data and our privacy is not being infringed upon?

41:55Nairobi Mayor:So briefly, Mayor Jones, your response? Well, I think, you know, he is a, this is something, having grown up in the intelligence

42:03San Antonio Mayor:community, that we're always very, very concerned about. And I think as we are trying to balance, again, the benefits of AI with ensuring somebody can maximize their agency at all points in time is exactly what he's getting at. We in San Antonio are thinking through what are our own AI policies that need to evolve as it relates specifically to this, who has access to the data, what has been their training on the data. And because as we know, it's actually always the human in the loop, right, that causes some kind of infraction or allows the data potentially to be used in a way in which it was not intended.

42:41San Antonio Mayor:And I think when we are just frankly based on the research that has been done, we know some of the challenges that AI has with, you know, people of color, people with a certain different kind of skin tone, right? And so making sure that we're thinking about that at the local level, I think, is important in a conversation that's top of mind as we're thinking about equity in a number of ways.

43:01Nairobi Mayor:Well, we got a lot of skepticism from our audience around how AI is used in city planning, but I want to put this to you as we wrap up. I'm a city council person for a very small Minnesota city, population just over 500. As a city council person, I have gotten a fuller idea of the multiple ways a city can exist and function. But my question is this, how do we fit AI to so many various entities with such differences? Our small city struggles with even basic technology, such as affording to buy laptops and paying to update our website. I see obstacles with the ability of all cities of all different sizes and locations to have equal access to and equal education of how to use AI.

43:39Nairobi Mayor:How can we get AI to work for everyone, not just those who can afford it? So I'm going to challenge you each to just give your thoughts in a couple of sentences.

43:47Bogotá Mayor:Okay, it's very difficult. Bogota has 10 % of the population that doesn't have, they don't have permanent access to internet, for example, 10%. So that's one of the challenges we have with AI to guarantee that it will not increase the gaps that we have in terms of access to technology and the services that it can provide. So I don't have an answer. We have the challenge and we have to work with it.

44:11Nairobi Mayor:Governor Sakaja.

44:13Bogotá Mayor:Technology doesn't have to be expensive. And I'll give you an example. My country possibly is not as rich as the U.S. It's definitely not as rich as the U.S. I don't know about Colombia. But we have very high penetration of internet just because of long investment in the infrastructure. And the adaptability to it is because the first technology that many interacted with was M-Pesa, sending money. And so people adapt very quickly to technology. And so a lot of interventions that require AI, open source, a lot of them need very low-cost sensors. For instance, what we're trying to do with flooding, it doesn't have to be super expensive, but it's just practical.

44:55Bogotá Mayor:And there's need for a lot of, what do you call it, open and crowdsourcing in terms of solutions. Once you do that and you create the triple helix of academia, industry, and government, any government can be able to afford it.

45:10Nairobi Mayor:And Mayor Jones, in a quick sentence from you.

45:12San Antonio Mayor:Well, I think this is a way in which we can better explain for the state and for our federal partners the way in which we need their help. You know, selfishly, I'm focused on San Antonio, sixth largest city in the country. But I think there is value in understanding some of these tools as public goods that everybody should have access to. If you can help build a road or build a bridge, then building the digital twin, the infrastructure that our communities also need would be worthy investment.

45:36Nairobi Mayor:Well, that's San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz-Jones. Governor Johnson Sakaja of Nairobi, Kenya, and Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán of Bogota, Colombia. Thank you all. And special thanks to our engineering support here in Madrid, Hector Salcedo, David Perdero, and Harry Johnson. Today's producers were Maya Garg and Arfi Getty. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Jen White from Madrid, Spain. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk again soon.

46:09Thank you.