1. General

Category

Category

Other

Please describe Other

Public Safety, Mental Health, Private Safety Services

2. Project Details

Company or Institution

CityAegis

Project

CityAegis Mobile App (www.cityaegis.com, PASSWORD: IRCAIJul31)

General description of the AI solution

CityAegis, a personal safety & navigation app, through innovative use of geolocation technology, crime data and social science research, aims to empower individuals to feel safer on the streets, in their communities and personally. Enabling people to take agency over their individual safety is our unique value proposition and the core component of our sustainable strategy.

CityAegis predicts potential and actual risk levels on the streets and displays them to users alongside safety points of interest (police, hospitals, open stores, etc.) by analyzing historical crime and complaint data combined with real time incident reports, and applying Artificial Intelligence (AI). The initial prototype provides navigation features to avoid risk areas, based on where people want to go from point A to B (current or sign posted locations) and keeps speed of response in mind, providing vital real-time information on nearby safe locations.

CityAegis provides a unique opportunity to connect end-users with access to community services of which they might not be aware or even realize they need through user responses, identifying those most at risk for safety health concerns such as anxiety/depression, domestic violence abuse or neighborhood crime vulnerability. As such, CityAegis educates users and supports sustainable communities.

Additional safety features in development:
Customer Satisfaction Rating system for each feature
– Risk perception summaries based on survey feedback and quick access to professional service and community centers
– The ability to share any incident, where and when it happens and alert a user-defined circle of trusted family and friends and/or user linked social media – applications or directly connect to local PSAP (911).
– Data harvesting social media for visualizing risk reports using natural language processing to enable services and NGOs to create long-term solutions to better serve the needs of people in the high-risk areas.

Website

https://www.cityaegis.com

Organisation

CityAegis

3. Aspects

Excellence and Scientific Quality: Please detail the improvements made by the nominee or the nominees’ team or yourself if your applying for the award, and why they have been a success.

CityAegis’ Personal Safety AI uniquely combines density based clustering analysis (DBSCAN) and the Spatio-Temporal Bayesian Model (STBM) to recommend the safest route within the user's location range and destination in NYC.

CityAegis is developed using Oracle Application Express and OpenRouteService services on Oracle Cloud with an autonomous database. Leaflet and Folium are used to display interactive maps and enhance data visualization to power the design and its deployment. Python is used to design scripts, create random test incident data, and for unsupervised learning. The STBM will add another layer of AI technology that can improve route prediction accuracy through iterations. The next stage will include incorporating natural language processing (NLP) of social media and sentiment analysis to enhance personalization of relevant safety content and facilitate better community communications (via geotags for ex).

The CityAegis research & technology development plan includes:
– Secondary research of local markets (community organizations, hospitals, NGOs, public safety providers and open source data)
– Primary research interviews with stakeholders & domain experts (public safety, health professionals and community organizations)
– Quantitative surveys of end-users (A/B Testing and customer satisfaction)
– Interpretable and explainable modelling and data analysis using Oracle & Python
– Evaluation of technology readiness levels against predefined parameters of project progress

Currently, CityAegis has completed Stage 1, TRL 3 (Characteristic Proof of Concept) for the Safe Routing feature of the application.
The website is password secured (IRCAIJul31) until approved for release. On the backend, customer and user data are stored in Oracle Cloud infrastructure (e.g., files, documents and databases). CityAegis ensures that users can set up their own multi-factor authentication (MFA). Access to the product systems requires MFA. Oracle Security grants MFA tokens and disables the tokens of inactive members. All access to production systems is logged and the logs are kept for security analysis.

Scaling of impact to SDGs: Please detail how many citizens/communities and/or researchers/businesses this has had or can have a positive impact on, including particular groups where applicable and to what extent.

CityAegis takes a Whole of Society, multi-stakeholder approach to development, addressing SDG Goals 3, 4, 5, 11 and 16 in ways that strengthen -rather replace or substitute- the links between and among individuals, communities and government through the development and use of integrated ML/AI such as clustering, predictive and prescriptive analytics and natural language processing. Our development plans ensure that the application is both scalable and replicable in other cities. Prospective stakeholders include government agencies, private sector services, and partnerships with other applications that lack a personal safety component. This application strongly supports the emergence of personal safety-driven algorithms furthering the SDG ecosystem.

CityAegis will continuously incorporate learnings from each phase of research and development, evaluating the technology and features against the TRL measures and ethical frameworks. Our research and methodology frameworks and use of integrated MLAI using open source and traceable data ensure clarity in our solution and for partner stakeholders.
Relevant customer, marketing, operational and SDG KPIs will be captured and analyzed to ensure sustainable growth and success in solving development problems relevant to each country.

Examples of verifiable indicators for the project will include:
– Customer feedback from end users of application
– Surveys of partner organizations and health professionals on follow up of referrals derived from application and success of community outreach
– Annual surveys and benchmark assessments of new research findings and experiences of domain area experts

In terms of global impact and added value, CityAegis, not only addresses important safety issues such as crimes against women, trafficking and mental health but also provides a way to strengthen the links between and among individuals, communities and local government bodies and institutions and empower individuals rather than governments through the use of AI technologies.

Scaling of AI solution: Please detail what proof of concept or implementations can you show now in terms of its efficacy and how the solution can be scaled to provide a global impact ad how realistic that scaling is.

According to The World’s Cities 2018 UN report, by 2030, urban areas are projected to house 60% of people globally, with 1 in 3 people living in cities with at least half a million inhabitants. NYC is the most populous and densely populated city in the US (8.3 million, distributed over about 302.6 square miles (784 km2)). There are currently over 6 billion smartphone users in the world and over 95% of NYC residents own or use a cellphone.

CityAegis' proof of concept is met by our three-layer solutions, including safety issues reported by users, safe-route geo-mapping, and AI/ML safety risk predictions. Early adoption could grow significantly (360,000 pedestrians enter Times Square every day). CityAegis expects to gain traction through its main functionalities as we test the personal safety algorithm. Challenges to future scaling include establishing a real time incident data from users and continuing its deployment using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

CityAegis engages in open-source GDPR to deliver a secure AI solution, following proper data governance. We will supervise the quality of collected data (user incident reporting, historical crime data, other features). In addition, CityAegis will include cybersecurity measures within the Oracle Cloud's survey built-in feature to prevent identity leakage. The secure and open development framework will facilitate ease of access and scalability for future partners and stakeholders at the local country level. Our research methodology and techno-moral virtue ethical standards will also act as best practice guidelines to grow AI implementation and skills in local workforces.

Ethical aspect: Please detail the way the solution addresses any of the main ethical aspects, including trustworthiness, bias, gender issues, etc.

AI algorithms are used in predicting crime to identify and sort through large amounts of historical data on criminal activity in order to determine people or places at risk. While generally well-intentioned, data may be incomplete and biased, with certain areas and criminal populations being over-represented.

CityAegis seeks to better predict crime to empower individual safety, not how law enforcement should respond. CityAegis seeks to use the AI-generated data to create long-term solutions to prevent crime based on effective social policies that will help communities thrive. Some programs have already been implemented and proven successful, such as the annual One Summer program in Chicago. This project provides social resources to young people identified as being at risk to reduce the risk of violence and has shown a 51% reduction in involvement in violence-related arrests.

Nevertheless, CityAegis is aware that model biases (inter alia, sample bias, exclusion bias, prejudice bias and measurement bias) exist. AI or Digital-based decisions are susceptible to inaccuracies, discriminatory, biased, and non-empathetic. CityAegis seeks to build a sustainable, scalable, and dynamic ecosystem with reliable partners, which must be regulated. That’s how our solution is a more reliable, safe, ethical and qualified solution to humankind.
CityAegis incorporates Martin’s Morality Model Framework, which aims to ensure that the content fed to the user is appropriate, fair and accurate and that any unjust biases that existed in the construction of historical data are addressed.

CityAegis supports individual empowerment through the use of human-centered design, value-sensitive design and global techno-moral virtue ethics.

CityAegis includes a global take on techno-moral framework along the guidelines described by Shannon Vallor’s book, Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting, and the latest social science research findings to ensure that local customs and values are taken into consideration for each country.