Ethics for the Smart City: Applied socio-technical frameworks to assess the implementation of AI-related solutions

This project involves interdisciplinary research into Smart City solutions from a social science and engineering perspective. The research team will examine the deployment of Smart City related projects and solutions in a real urban environment and monitor the community’s response. Kirchheim bei München provides the social, political, and territorial context to draw advancements toward human-centered Smart Cities while answering the question: how can we assess AI-enabled solutions implemented in urban settings from a socio-technical perspective? The project focuses on three key aspects: sustainability, governance, and acceptance, which unfold into four axes: Smart Cities for sustainable development: assessing social and environmental impacts urban governance: transparency and public engagement; data governance: transparency, data policies, privacy, stakeholder accountability; ethics by design: developing and deploying trustworthy technologies. The primary outcomes are socio-technical frameworks aiming to steer the ethical development of technology-based solutions and promote their responsible implementation in urban settings.