Recently, Han Chuanfeng, a professor in the Department of Public Management of our school, published an article in the Shanghai Observer (a Jiefang Daily app) to introduce six key points for AI-empowered urban community governance. The following is the published article.

Megacities are rapidly becoming more socially complex, fragile, and sensitive. The application of AI technology is still in its infancy and has weaknesses such as deficiency in application scenarios, original innovation and data perception as well as poor systems and mechanisms. Long-standing issues need to be resolved urgently and fundamentally based on strategic governance. We should aim to modernize the governance systems and capabilities of intelligent communities. We should focus on the reconstruction of our community governance models. We should innovate these systems and mechanisms by updating our ideas. We should also build and improve our current urban governance systems to promote the modernization of urban governance. This process-driven system features online-and-offline integration, two-way interaction (up and down), scientific decision-making, process control, a mechanism linkage and a legal guarantee.

AI is becoming an important force that is initiating a new round of technological and industrial transformation by subverting traditional thinking logic, decision-making, and management models. As an organizational force, AI deconstructs existing methods for disseminating information, behavior pattern of the main body, and the form of social interests. It reshapes governments, markets, society and their relationships. It also forms a new ecosystem of governance and leads human society into a new network-based, society-focused, and intelligent era where new social governance patterns will be required.

As a complex and systematic project, AI-based intelligent community governance can outperform traditional extensive and experience-based management models. It can overcome the deficiency of urban innovation, vitality and abilities brought by community management. It can break the administrative boundaries between the manager and the managed people as well as the work boundaries among public sectors and between the public and private sectors. Furthermore, AI can establish multi-agent governance mechanisms that involve governments, enterprises, social organizations, and the grass-roots level. As an incremental reform and a supply-side reform in urban public services and public goods, the refined social governance of megacities will outperform the traditional extensive and experience-based management models. Promoting AI-empowered community governance and services is a requirement for developing substance in Chinese cities in the new era. It will provide firm support for sustainable development. It is the only way that China can modernize its urban governance systems and capabilities.

Megacities are rapidly becoming more socially complex, fragile, and sensitive. The application of AI technology is still in its infancy and has weaknesses such as deficiency in application scenarios, original innovation and data perception as well as poor systems and mechanisms. Long-standing issues need to be resolved urgently and fundamentally based on strategic governance. We should aim to modernize the governance systems and capabilities of intelligent communities. We should focus on the reconstruction of our community governance models. We should innovate these systems and mechanisms by updating our ideas. We should also build and improve our current urban governance systems to promote the modernization of urban governance. This process-driven system features online-and-offline integration, two-way interaction (up and down), scientific decision-making, process control, a mechanism linkage and a legal guarantee.

Therefore, we need to work harder to achieve excellent AI-empowered governance of urban communities from the following six aspects.

1. Improve the recognition of detail-focused culture and our awareness of focused service. With the help of modern information technology in all levels of governance, we can define and specify what we the inner content of governance from the method to idea. We should share information and have a thorough and systematic understanding of the characteristics of the times and the inner content of governing the social environment in megacities as well as its main content and basic models. We should enrich the implementation of refined governance and strengthen people’s awareness and support. We should focus on refined services in our work. Based on hard management, we should use flexible and people-oriented services to ease conflicts and promote governance. In addition, we should build a government-led sustainable basic public service system hat covers both urban as well as rural areas with market participation. We should achieve this through multi-agent participation as well as resource integration and adjustments. By doing this, we can provide support for and guarantee the promotion of refined governance and the realization of social harmony and stability.

2. Design precise standards and integrate them with effective systems and mechanisms. We should connect governments and cities in various elements, modules, items and people’s livelihood requirement. We should improve our understanding and perception of public information and the information on changes. We should promote the integration of AI with the real economy to stimulate industrial development. We should also facilitate the deep integration of AI technology and community governance and develop an overall intelligent community design plan and a complete set of application technology solutions to meet the demands of a “scientific, refined, and intelligent” urban governance. This provides a “Shanghai solutions” to promote China’s high-quality AI development and participation in global AI governance.

3. Deploy optimized and advanced modern technology. We should optimize the deployment of governance method and explore new way of urban governance supported by information and communications technologies. We should also accelerate the construction of intelligent urban governance infrastructure as well as analyze and apply urban governance data to improve the efficiency of urban public services. We should establish a systematic, end-to-end management information system that integrates the collection of community information and public opinions. It should also be able to identify any requirements, integrate public security management, and get feedback of supervision assessment. This system can display and deal with various activities efficiently, form a closed loop, integrate departmental functions, and increase platform advantages. We should enhance the intelligence of our physical infrastructure and increase informatization, network and intelligence level of key infrastructures to develop the urban Internet of Things as a linked system so that we have a deeper perception of what is going on. This system can help us understand the practical needs of citizens and keep abreast of accurate community information. With an approach that focuses on the data, we can build a data-enabled and self-evolving open ecosystem that integrates the human, machine, and things in order to provide citizens with personalized, differentiated, and intelligent public services. This will also improve the government’s social governance capabilities. We can apply modern information technologies such as AI, big data, 5G, IOT, AR, and cloud computing to optimize social governance systems and mechanisms.

4. Design AI-empowered intelligent community governance scenarios. Considering practical scenarios and restrictions of existing technology, we should proactively promote the integration of core technologies and traditional industries such as intelligent methods represented by AI, 5G communication mechanisms, emerging computing mechanisms represented by cloud and fog computing, and decentralized storage solutions represented by blockchain. We can achieve automatic, scientific, and intelligent upgrades and develop more intelligent community service application patterns. In addition, we can gradually develop new community services that lead to efficient government administration techniques, provide convenient solutions, manage intelligently, live a smart life, and foster a livable environment. This includes intelligent community administration, property management, security services, medical and aged care services, and other AI-empowered intelligent community governance scenarios. In terms of products and services, we should vigorously explore the application of intelligent service and companion robots, intelligent vehicles, intelligent terminals, and intelligent services in the construction and governance of intelligent communities. We can provide technical support for the profound changes in the concepts, models and mechanisms of community governance.

5. Promote top-level information security designs for intelligent communities. We should design and implement top-level information security designs for intelligent communities based on software and hardware support, access control methods, data encryption and obfuscation, ethical reviews and support, and laws and regulations. We should manage the sharing and integration of information related to intelligent community governance with multiple agents participated. We should refine the forms of design data analysis and disclosure methods to prevent the core data center from invasion and any personal information from leakage. We should fully consider privacy protection and information security as well as our moral principles.

6. Quantify the incremental effects of intelligent communities. We should consider the types, development stages, self-positioning, functions, and characteristics of different communities based on China’s requirements for the construction and development of intelligent communities. We should focus on how AI is applied and its improvement over time in the field of intelligent community governance. We should evaluate the effectiveness of AI-empowered community governance from the perspectives of system and policy, economic development, and how it affects the lives of common people. We should also measure the intelligence level of community governance systems and mechanisms, the economic cost and benefits of AI empowering communities, and the happiness of the residents.