Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Planning and Design

The 3rd Tony Hall Memorial Lecture

AI, as it came to be called as far back as the 1950s, constitutes a broad field of information technologies that has grown dramatically in the last five years.

Computers have become ever more powerful, hence capable of increasing our ability to process ever larger volumes of information – big data.

The many computerised tools for planning that we have invented in the last half century are continually being reinforced and reinterpreted using AI. More recently, such tools have been extended to process qualitative data, text and various languages, that enable us to build up intelligent ways of searching for answers in large databases.

In this talk, Prof Michael Batty will sketch the history of AI, focussing on problem-solving tools and various simulation models. He'll also explore new developments in searching for pattern and ‘answers’ in data using machine learning. These suggest new ways of generating intelligent answers to complex queries through what are now called large language models. Prof Batty will attempt to illustrate how these tools have real potential for new ways of thinking about future plans for urban development and transport.

About our speaker

Michael Batty CBE FRS FBA FRTPI is Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London and Chair of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). He is a graduate of the University of Manchester in Town and Country Planning, and of the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in Architecture where he was Professor of Town Planning in the 1980s. He was Director of the National Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at SUNY-Buffalo from 1990 to 1995 before he set up CASA at University College London. His most recent book is The Computable City (2024, MIT Press) and with Wei Yang he is co-author of A Digital Future for Planning.

Event details

• 5.30pm for a 6pm start
• Talk ends at 7.30pm
• Drinks reception from 7.30-8pm

Download the AI in Planning and Design event flyer