HCM CITY — The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in smart city development will require high levels of investment to catch up with global trends, speakers at a conference held in HCM City said on Tuesday.

Dr Lê Thành Sách, an AI expert from the HCM City University of Technology, said that AI was becoming more important “because of its deep learning, high accuracy, quick calculations and better access to databases”.

"It is now being successfully used in the fields of video, audio and language."

However, he warned that "AI also contains potential risks, such as accidents caused by self-propelled automobile systems, loss of jobs due to robots, conflicts between people and AI robots, and other issues related to safety and social security".

Hà Việt Uyên Sinh from HCM City International University under Việt Nam National University-HCM City noted that smart solutions such as traffic monitoring would use surveillance cameras.

As of the end of last year, the city had installed more than 300 surveillance cameras on streets.

"Smart transport management can reduce the need for human resources and can be easily upgraded," he said.

Sinh said the university’s traffic monitoring system provides information about traffic flow, vehicle travelling directions, average speed of vehicles on roads, and traffic congestion.
It can also identify number plates and supervise traffic violations, including running of red lights and illegal parking.

At the conference, Trần Dương Hòa Bình from the German firm Bosch Việt Nam introduced its IoT (internet of things) solutions for smart cities.

IoT solutions include intelligent management of parking, vehicles, transport and energy consumption, smart electric vehicles, intelligent water clocks, and air-quality monitoring.

Bình said smart cities would have connected intelligent management systems.

The workshop was held on the sidelines of the “Week for HCM City Innovation, Start-ups and Entrepreneurship” (WHISE 2018) on October 15-19. — VNS