London 2030: How AI is set to shape our city

Back in September, M&S Food partnered with Berlin tech company InFarm for an innovative trial in the capital. InFarm is leading the way in vertical farming, growing vegetables, lettuce and herbs in neatly stacked units controlled by cloud-based AI to ensure perfect growing conditions. One of these farms popped up in M&S’s Clapham store, allowing shoppers to get fresher-than-fresh basil, parsley, coriander and mint with almost no food miles. Six more have been rolled out since and the technology is set to be widespread in the coming years.

While we don’t think that anyone could have predicted the explosion in cat vs Roomba videos on the internet, one thing that we can predict is the greater role that robots will soon be playing in our homes. Just like those autonomous vacuum cleaners, robots will be used for domestic chores. Researchers at UC Berkeley led by Pieter Abbeel recently unveiled ‘Blue’: a low-cost, general-purpose robot comprising of two giant arms that can fold towels, make coffee and even arrange flowers. Advances in AI have meant that the software behind these machines has become ever more sophisticated. We’ll look forward to Robotic Arm Vs Cat videos coming to a device near us soon. 

When Bloomberg’s new European HQ opened in the City in 2017, it was the most sustainable office building in the world. It employed technology to dramatically cut its use of water and energy, and to re-use the waste it produced so that none went to landfill. It also had a smart airflow system that was able to redistribute oxygen based on the number of people in certain parts of the building. ‘Smart buildings’ like this, fitted with sensors for monitoring that can dynamically change the environment, are becoming more and more common in the capital. Excitingly, that means huge strides towards making our capital a sustainable city. Hooray to that. 

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that with virtual reality, augmented reality and the technology to create vast digital worlds already with us, the future of entertainment is set to get very immersive indeed. Artist Chris Milk – known for his influential TED talk on the creative potential of VR – believes the future of going to the cinema will involve stepping into our own, personally crafted stories complete with AI-driven characters you can interact with. So yes, just like that Black Mirror episode ‘Bandersnatch’ but way, way more extra. We’re here for it.