How exactly would our lives change if a mega-corporation owned a city?
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00:00 Technology is rapidly advancing and changing our lives in many ways, for better or worse.
00:09 Basic needs like transportation, shopping, food and entertainment are much more convenient and personalized based on our data.
00:19 But what about the needs of an entire city?
00:22 What if you only needed to swipe right for your next plumber? Or your commute to work was done in a self-driving car?
00:31 These might actually be possible if a corporation had complete control over a city.
00:37 So how exactly would our lives change if a mega corporation owned a city?
00:43 What new technology could improve our cities?
00:46 What are the pros and cons?
00:49 What would happen if it failed?
00:52 This is WHAT IF, and here's what would happen if a mega corporation ran your city.
00:59 According to the UN, over two-thirds of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050.
01:07 This steady increase of people living in cities has attracted multi-billion dollar tech companies like Google and Amazon,
01:15 who are looking into new ways to make cities smarter with technology.
01:20 Google's sister company Sidewalk Labs is planning to transform Toronto's eastern waterfront with a 50 million dollar development known as Keyside.
01:30 Using data and algorithms, Keyside will have innovative systems like pay-as-you-throw garbage chutes that charge households based on waste output,
01:39 heated sidewalks to melt snow with weather sensors, and smart traffic systems calibrated to ease congestion during rush hour or big events.
01:49 This big data will make it the most measurable community in the world.
01:54 As promising as all this sounds, what would happen if a mega corporation was given the keys to an entire city?
02:02 Believe it or not, corporately owned cities already exist.
02:06 Take Celebration, Florida for example, a small town next door to Disney World.
02:11 Disney owns and operates two of its utility companies and developed a town as a hub for its business interests.
02:19 Other cities like Stonecrest, Georgia even offered to change their name to Amazon to have the corporation set up shop there.
02:27 They believe it will stimulate the job market with around 50,000 jobs expected to pay an average of $100,000 each.
02:35 Topeka, Kansas, which was briefly known as Topekachoo during the Pokemon craze of the late 1990s,
02:41 also spent several months as the town of Google in a bid to attract the company.
02:47 So if you're willing to rename your town to What Ifsville, well, we'll be in touch.
02:54 If cities were run like businesses, democracy could be a thing of the past.
02:59 An elite ring of executives or just one leader could decide the future and outcomes of every citizen in What Ifsville.
03:07 In a corporate autocracy government where one person holds all the power, the mayor would be CEO.
03:14 Citizens would be treated like employees and all their actions could be tracked on a rating system.
03:20 Having all this personal data could improve the efficiency and behavior of a city, but at the cost of personal privacy and the public's sanity.
03:29 Sorry to say, but your favorite restaurants and cafes might not be in this city,
03:35 especially if they've been blocked as a competitor to the mega corporation.
03:39 Unfortunately, this would take away people's freedom to choose one company over the other.
03:45 Regular city services like health care, transportation, hydro, and sewage treatment would be privatized and at the mercy of market demand.
03:54 In a corporate city, taxes would be treated more like investments.
03:59 The more tax you pay, the bigger your return on investment.
04:03 The rich would get a higher priority for basic services, such as fixing potholes or creating park systems.
04:10 This would quickly divide the rich from the poor and limit people's access to essential goods and services.
04:17 But what if we cut out the middleman and let artificial intelligence run our cities?
04:23 Would life be better?
04:26 Imagine a city with self-driving cars, police drones, and even robot bosses.
04:32 With the rapid advancement of AI, many jobs will be lost due to automation.
04:37 An AI work study conducted by Oracle found 57% of respondents said they would trust a robot over their boss.
04:46 Most of the participants felt a robot boss would be unbiased and likely to do a better job of organizing their work schedules.
04:54 Let's face it, your human boss is probably more understanding of your emotions, though.
04:58 And frankly, I'd rather be terminated by a human.
05:04 Let's consider another scenario where a city is run by a social media company.
05:10 All residents would be required to use their apps to access services in the city.
05:15 To get things done in this city, you simply take a photo and tag the city's services account, and they would get to work.
05:22 These requests wouldn't be caught up in bureaucratic paperwork and could be processed more quickly.
05:27 But the city would have complete access to all your data, including your location, likes, dislikes, favorite "what if" videos, and even your awkward selfies.
05:39 Uh-oh, you didn't see that one.
05:42 Daily lives would be bombarded by personalized ads for restaurants, businesses, and services based on your data.
05:49 Essentially, you'd lose any data privacy.
05:53 In our current system, we have the choice to elect city councillors and municipal government who reflect our preferences.
06:01 But in a mega-corporate city, the corporation would act in our best interest and take away our ability to vote, sacrificing you to follow the herd.
06:11 Another scenario is a city run by a company that outsources labour like many popular rideshare apps.
06:18 In this mega-corporate city, city services would be provided by third-party private contractors.
06:25 People would be able to rate each city service worker based on a metric similar to Uber or Yelp.
06:31 With all city services outsourced, such as transportation, garbage removal, snow removal, electricity and water maintenance, this would open up a lot of job opportunities.
06:43 There could be a surge in development and city construction.
06:47 Cities could also earn money by selling off depreciating assets such as maintenance equipment that could no longer be used.
06:55 In this economy, problems like potholes or street construction would get solved more quickly and could guarantee a high quality of work.
07:03 This might seem all fine and dandy, but if you're a low-income citizen in this scenario, you would have a tough time getting any work done in your neighbourhood.
07:12 Even worse, if this rating system was fully adopted and applied to every citizen, things could get out of hand pretty quickly.
07:20 There may be more good Samaritans out there as a result, but one little mistake could drop your rating significantly, potentially banishing you from society.
07:30 If a city is run by a corporation, it can only stay afloat if it's profitable.
07:36 Just as a traditional city answers to its citizens, a corporate city must answer to its shareholders.
07:42 If the shareholders aren't happy with the city's profitability, they could simply pack up their bags and find another lucrative location, leaving What Ifsville as a ghost city.
07:53 Despite many pros to having a smart city, a technocratic or autocratic government could cause civil unrest.
08:00 The best scenario would be a hybrid city, where we could embrace technology to answer the needs of the city and still maintain our freedoms and rights.
08:09 Whether you live in a small, rural town or a large city, we all value our freedom to choose.
08:16 This system of democracy allows us to make real, actionable changes in our lives and communities.
08:22 A corporation may revitalize a city with jobs and technology, but they could destroy its unique charm and identity.
08:29 Maybe we can start by improving the technology of our city's roads by paving them with solar panels.
08:36 Well, that's a story for another What If.
08:41 (electronic music)