AI could already — quite literally — be hitting the streets in your town.
Driving the news: Edmonton-based Runwithit Synthetics secured $3.5 million in venture funding from Raven Indigenous Capital Partners to grow its synthetic twin technology, which lets cities combine their data to simulate things like disaster responses, infrastructure investments, or the impacts of climate change.
Why it matters: Even as higher levels of government grapple with implementing AI, municipalities are getting more comfortable putting it to work on day-to-day tasks.
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Ottawa is using AI to predict homelessness, following a similar effort in London, Ontario. Data like age, gender, previous shelter usage, weather, and economic indicators are used to predict how often someone will use a shelter over six months.
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, predicts when buses need maintenance. The city didn’t have a service disruption due to a bus shortage for the year following AI adoption across the fleet in 2022.
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Leduc, Alberta, scans organic waste bins for contaminants, like plastic. First adopted last year, the town extended the project to the end of 2024.
- Cityrover’s machine vision detects potholes and other road maintenance needs, and has been used in cities including Winnipeg and Ontario’s Richmond Hill, Windsor, and Markham to bring down the cost and time for repairs.
Big picture: Given the questions around AI’s reliability, towns have been going slow, testing it on a case-by-case basis. But Edmonton created an AI framework so all of its data is organized and ready for AI opportunities that arise, from big urban planning projects to directing the daily work of building inspectors.
Yes, but: Cities have a lot of data on residents, and high-impact AI is largely unregulated until Bill C-27 is passed. For things like homelessness, that means potentially running into AI’s well-documented bias issues. But on a smaller scale, residents might not be thrilled with a robot rooting through their trash.