The triumvirate of cities involved in the U.S. Thinkhub Data Pipeline project have skyrocketed in the rankings this week, thanks to bringing their AI-controlled information sharing network online a full 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Project representatives in Boston, Austin and Seattle praised their teams’ efficiency, dedication and attention to detail. While none of the three Thinkhub nodes have actually begun to process datasets as yet, Data Pipeline officials were confident that they would be able to begin their Week 3 tasks at least 3 days earlier than planned, barring unforeseen connectivity issues.
London dropped precipitously in the rankings this week following news that URLondon’s project head, Robert Byrne, had planned to monetize components of the city’s tourist-oriented translation and mapping service, with private London tourist attractions able to pay substantial fees to emphasize the importance of their destinations within the service. Byrne has since resigned from his post, and been replaced by project second Dr. Ava Smith, but the need to rapidly reevaluate the project’s business connections and mandate have stalled any real progress.
Another contest disappointment came from Senegal this week, after Diamniadio’s Senegal Shines Bright team announced that air quality monitors sourced locally for the project had been delayed in production, pushing back their initial data gathering by several weeks.
Weekly Spotlight
Alla+Svensk Municipal Translation Service: Sweden is a nation with a substantial immigrant population, a true melting pot of languages and cultures. In keeping with pre-existing language education projects, the Municipality of Stockholm launched Alla+Svensk to provide AI-assisted cloud translation on all City websites and public-facing computer terminals, enabling an unprecedented level of public access. The service includes a substantial feedback component, enabling linguistic minorities and frequent users to provide suggestions, commentary and clarifications on translated content.
Burgersrichtung Business Projekt: Berlin is one of the great commercial hubs of Europe, a city home to more than 350,000 companies. In what they have themselves humorously dubbed “German’s Least Sexy AI Project”, the BBP aims in incorporate AI analytics into the city’s public business registries, oversight and application process. In addition to allowing city officials to better track business trends in the municipality, the system will streamline the process of new business applications, and provide a new public front end for public research and financing enquiries.
