In this panel session futurist Matthew Griffin explores the impact that emerging technologies, both current and distant, will have on the future of Smart Cities and the lives of citizens in Saudi Arabia and beyond.
Matthew GriffinFounder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
G7 · G20governments advised
850+keynotes
102countries
17codexes
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About this panel
Firstly, thank you to the team at Cityscape Global in Riyadh for asking me to join ministers and regional entrepreneurs on a panel to discuss the role that emerging technologies will play in powering future smart cities such as the half a trillion dollar smart city NEOM, and 13 other Saudi Arabian gigaprojects.
On the panel we had myself, Dr. Maher Shirah, the Director General of Smart City Development and the KSA RCRC, Musaed Alotalbi, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation and Smart Cities, Othman Al Dahash, CEO of IOT Squared, and Feras Albanyan, CEO of AQALAT, and first discussed how the more commonly known technologies will help transform how citizens live and work in these ultra modern cities.
Then we dove in and explored how the impact that these technologies will have on the privacy and security of individuals, explored how cities could become self-funding and tax free havens thanks to Citycoins which use the city’s own infrastructure and Web 3.0 to make and mine cryptocurrencies that are tradable on decentralised exchanges, and explored how, throughout the life of these cities Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computing power will progress enough to turn these cities into Exascale computer nodes, and the impacts thereof.
Then, finally, we rounded out the session by covering the ethical questions some of these technologies raise and how to deal with those, before final summaries and close.
311 Intelligence
What this means for your leadership team
A city becomes a technology system.
The panel treated a smart city as one system. It covers how citizens live and work, how the city is funded and how much computing it holds. Leaders who sell into or operate inside such cities will meet that whole system, not a single product.
City-run money needs a cool eye.
Citycoins would use a city's own infrastructure and Web 3.0 to make and mine cryptocurrencies. 311 tracks the wider crypto cities idea at Watch, with wide use around 2045, because plans funded by crypto profits have mostly stalled after MiamiCoin's collapse. Treat it as a signal to follow, not a budget line.
Privacy and compute raise the stakes.
Privacy laws in the GDPR style now cover most countries, so data handling in a smart city is a live duty. Exascale computers do at least one quintillion sums every second, and 311 puts wide use around 2032. When a city becomes a computing node, the ethical questions raised on the panel need owners and rules early.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
Which of our services would depend on a smart city's data?
Who owns the privacy and ethics questions in our city projects?
What would we do if city-run crypto funding never arrives?
The trends and technologies behind this session
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
What does this session mean for organisations working with giga projects?
It means planning for a city as a connected system. Daily services, funding models, privacy duties and computing power all link together, so teams should look at them as one picture.
How does exascale computing relate to smart cities like NEOM?
The panel explored cities turning into Exascale computer nodes as computing power grows. 311 lists exascale computing at Explore, with a first product in 2020 and wide use around 2032.
How do crypto cities relate to the Citycoins idea?
Citycoins are a version of the crypto cities idea, where a city funds itself with its own coins. 311 rates the wider trend at Watch, since plans have mostly stalled after MiamiCoin's collapse.
How can 311 brief our leadership team on this?
Through a private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector, in person first.
Bring this to your leadership teamA private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector. In person first, anywhere in the world.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s session and 311 data.
If Matthew gave this session today
Hundreds of emerging technologies, mapped for industry.
The codex explores hundreds of emerging technologies and their implications for global culture, industry and society, the long-range view that any 2080 infrastructure strategy depends on.
