By Kris Hartley

In February 2024, Hong Kong police introduced plans to instal 615 new surveillance cameras in areas of the town with “high crime figures and high pedestrian flows.” The announcement additionally talked about the potential of equipping the cameras with synthetic intelligence (AI) capabilities. This information follows a January 2024 announcement that 2,000   surveillance cameras can be put in across the metropolis this 12 months. According to an RTHK article, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk “added that he understood some people had privacy concerns, but said many other places had more CCTV cameras than Hong Kong.”

Mr. Cheuk is right that different locations have invested closely in digital camera surveillance. According to a 2023 report by Comparitech, the highest three cities outdoors of China with essentially the most surveillance cameras per sq. mile are Delhi (1,490), Seoul (618), and Singapore (387), with New York City (quantity 5) having 321 and London (quantity seven) having 209.

The identical examine examined 39 main cities in mainland China, discovering a median of 1,994 surveillance cameras per sq. mile, with the very best quantity in Shenzhen (7,462), Wuhan (6,488), and Shanghai (5,239). Chinese cities represent the top-21 most camera-surveilled on the earth.

Taking an estimate primarily based on surveillance cameras per individual, Hong Kong has roughly 52,000 for a complete of 122 per sq. mile – far behind the mainland common of 1,994 throughout the 39 studied cities. Technology is clearly a driver of Hong Kong’s coverage agenda, which at a excessive degree is concentrated on harmonisation with mainland China. Indeed, many expertise coverage initiatives seem extra benign than the set up of surveillance cameras – together with the broad-reaching Smart City Blueprint, service integration with Guangdong province, and a dedication to every day citizen-experience points like smart mobility.

These are heady occasions for presidency expertise. The latest and noisy emergence of generative AI, significantly by publicly accessible functions like ChatGPT, is bringing each disruption and new alternatives to all corners of society. The focus of governments around the globe, nevertheless, just isn’t solely on management. Public sector organisations now interface with AI as each regulator and user, and AI can also be being applied to sensible metropolis programmes.

The success of presidency expertise just isn’t dependent solely on bits and cables – infrastructure, web pace, and ubiquitous connectivity. No imaginative and prescient of smartness or technological development is feasible with out public belief and political legitimacy. My latest study about public perceptions of sensible metropolis programmes in Hong Kong provides some insights into these advanced dynamics.

In the examine, I discover that public assist for sensible cities relies upon partly on the federal government’s potential to successfully talk about its use of and intentions for expertise. In Hong Kong, the Covid-19 pandemic challenged the federal government’s effectiveness in nudging residents to adjust to technology-based containment measures. With current tensions over legislative proposals about prison extradition and nationwide safety, the political legitimacy of any new coverage initiative could possibly be thought-about fragile.

In constructing assist for AI-enabled sensible cities and different authorities expertise initiatives, the development of coverage narratives performs a vital function. According to my study, a typical pathway to political legitimacy is the technocratic narrative regarding experience and scientific data. The seemingly goal performance of expertise is understandably interesting, each to governments and far of the general public, within the present period of uniquely tense political polarisation and weaponisation of scientific facts.

However, the long-held notion of technocratic impartiality is being challenged from two instructions: the political right-wing by populist, anti-globalist, and nationalist actions, and the political left-wing by claims about racist and sexist bias embedded in establishments and public life. Even in contexts the place such points should not a central a part of the political discourse, public scepticism borne of weakened state-society relations stays a shaky basis on which to construct credibility for presidency expertise.

Furthermore, a typical level of pushback from all sides of the political spectrum is the argument that sensible metropolis programmes are a top-down agenda that serves elite business and political pursuits. This critique calls into query the very course of by which insurance policies are made, who’s consulted, and what political checks and balances guarantee fairness and equity. A public communication technique could spotlight the comfort and effectivity of sensible cities, however doubling down on expertise just isn’t an efficient option to foster confidence in governance and policymaking extra typically. This activity requires solely the gritty and toilsome work of strengthening public belief by significant exchanges and session, supply on coverage guarantees, and a dedication to transparency and accountability.

Finally, the problem of communications addressed in my examine highlights the significance of message comprehension. This problem is especially salient within the context of technologically or scientifically advanced coverage points. Covid-19 uncovered some societal divides regarding perception in scientific truth or, at the least, within the credibility of establishments utilizing science as a coverage enter. Similar dynamics could emerge as AI and different applied sciences are extra deeply built-in into official policymaking and monitoring capacities. Related messaging ought to be clear and comprehensible to everybody, together with non-experts.

In the approaching years and many years, Hong Kong’s sensible cities adventures can be a full of life interaction amongst dynamic and evolving applied sciences, often-mercurial public sentiments, and the federal government’s want for management and stability. The sensible cities imaginary is a promising narrative at face worth – improved providers, consumer comfort, operational effectivity, and alternatives to “modernise.” However, the story doesn’t cease at technological innovation.

Public belief, political legitimacy, and open and inclusive communication are basic constructing blocks – as a lot for sensible cities as for some other coverage problem. In my study, I conclude by stating “the greatest challenges faced by smart cities and other techno-optimistic narratives in the coming decades will be as much political as technical.” As smartness is redefined in nuanced methods round sustainability, high quality of life, and private empowerment, Hong Kong ought to keep away from being locked into an old-generation definition targeted solely on bits and cables. A wise metropolis is no matter its residents want and need it to be.

Kris Hartley is an Assistant Professor on the City University of Hong Kong, Department of Public and International Affairs. In August 2024, he’ll begin as an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, School of Sustainability. See his website.

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