TY  - JOUR
TI  - Artificial Intelligence Role in Promoting Saudi Arabia’s Smart Cities: Addressing SDGs for Socio-Cultural Challenges
T2  - The Russian Sociological Review
IS  - The Russian Sociological Review
KW  - artificial intelligence (AI)
KW  - SDGs
KW  - socio-cultural challenges
KW  - smart cities
KW  - Saudi Arabia
KW  - Saudi Vision 2030
KW  - NEOM
AB  - The study explores the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to address socio-cultural challenges in Saudi Arabia while promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a structured narrative review method with a critical approach, the study highlights AI’s versatility in analyzing complex social phenomena, understanding human behavior, and optimizing urban infrastructure. With its unique socio-cultural challenges, Saudi Arabia aims for sustainable development through Saudi Vision 2030 and various smart city projects, emphasizing the importance of addressing challenges like gender equality, cultural preservation, an increasing youth population, rapid urbanization, and climate change. The study identifies ten AI applications and models to address these challenges and promote relevant SDGs across six areas: Predictive Analytics and Forecasting, Optimization and Decision Support, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Generative AI, and Geospatial AI. These AI models can help address issues like gender equality, youth education, and employment, as well as optimize water management, energy use, and urban planning to address rapid urbanization and climate change challenges. By aligning AI development with the goals outlined in the SDGs, Saudi Arabia can unlock the potential of AI to create sustainable, resilient, and inclusive smart cities that effectively address socio-cultural challenges. However, the study emphasizes the necessity of customizing AI applications in smart cities based on Saudi Arabia’s religious and cultural values to ensure ethical and culturally sensitive implementations. The findings of this study hold relevance not only for Saudi Arabia but also for other countries facing similar challenges. The study provides practical recommendations for policymakers, urban planners, and technology experts to leverage AI effectively for sustainable development. It also outlines future research directions to address the limitations identified, such as exploring implementation challenges and ethical considerations.
AU  - Borhan Sepehri
AU  - Abdulaziz I. Almulhim
AU  - Mohammad Anvar Adibhesami
AU  - Saeed Makaremi
AU  - Farzaneh Ejazi
UR  - https://sociologica.hse.ru/en/2024-23-4/1006973788.html
PY  - 2024
SP  - 20-47
VL  - 23