The promise and perils of smart (city) bots as educational tools

Written from an educator’s perspective, the paper aims to examine the increasing use of chatbot technology capable of answering user queries in various fields such as commerce, public service delivery, urban areas, higher education etc. by simulating human conversation through text messages or voice commands. We analyse why smart bots have become popular technologies in the context smart cities; shed light on different types of bots (chatbots, large language models such as ChatGPT, flying bots); and explain how we use bots as teaching tool in an introductory AI for business course. A key argument putting forward is that smart bots are useful pedagogical tools to educate students about the promise and perils of the technology-driven smart city agenda, a proposition which will be tested in a forthcoming mixed-methods study in a higher educational institution in Singapore. However, as educators we must also create awareness amongst users such as urbanites or students with regards to the perils of smart bots (with their ‘futuristic predictions’) such as job destruction, top down governance, improper data outputs, negative public opinion on chatbots, Big Tech’s power, dataveillance or cyberattacks.