Signal 1: Sentiment Analysis and The City
With a majority of the world's population residing in cities, the data generated by its dwellers is a massive dataset that can be used by civic authorities to manage day-to-day operations. Enter Zencity, an Israel based startup which monitors the popular sentiment of the city dwellers keeping the municipal authorities in sync with the tone of the city.
Zencity collects information from myriad sources, ranging from social networking websites to municipal helplines and news websites. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms are used to categorize and structure the data which is later provided to city officials to let them know about the prevailing issues in the locality. It also intimates them about the urgency of the situation by monitoring the sentiments of the people to a particular situation.
Zencity has carved a name for itself in a very niche space at the intersection of artificial intelligence and urban science. It has recently managed to secure $6 million in a series A round of funding. Zencity’s success to integrate the vox populi via a technological interface, giving city officials a live feed of the urgent and critical issues, one can only say that the age of smart cities has arrived.
References:
https://www.israel21c.org/zencity-helps-cities-pinpoint-issues-that-irk-residents/
