Per chi ricorda la pubblicità della Sun Microsystem ("We are the dot in dot com"): questi sono i dot in "dot communism" <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/28/jack-ma-ai-dystopian-c...> On the outskirts of Hangzhou, eastern China, in Alibaba’s <https://www.theguardian.com/business/alibaba> Cloud Town, a Silicon Valley-style working and leisure hub, cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence (AI) and smart city developments at one of China’s largest tech companies are showcased. It is a half-empty dystopia of almost comic proportions where the future of automation and infrastructure in southern China is played out. While Alibaba exhibitions and conferences occur sporadically, the full scope of what goes on there remains hidden. Having long claimed to be apolitical, Jack Ma <https://www.theguardian.com/business/jack-ma>, the billionaire co-founder and executive chairman of the tech giant Alibaba, was recently revealed to be a member of the ruling Communist party of China (CCP) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46353767>. It’s another in a long list of links between corporate and state apparatus that stretch far beyond the borders of China. Nevertheless, a glimpse into the projects the company is working on in Cloud Town, considered in light of these revelations, should set the alarm bells ringing with fear of a dystopian future of state and corporate control. Technologies in development at Cloud Town range from AI pedestrian crossing lights that use facial recognition to identify the age of a road-crosser and give them a longer green light if they are old/slow enough, to AI drone cars that can respond to passengers needs. The greatest feature of the car, explained the proud representative, is that its media panel, linked to the user’s smartphone, reads patterns of movement, food choices and potentially even photos and comments, and then crosses this with millions of data sets to make predictions about what the user might like to eat and how they might like to travel there or have the food travel to them. In short, the new citizen outsources part of their decision-making processes, and maybe even part of their desire, to Alibaba. Our very impulses are mapped and planned in advance. The triangulation between data, predictive technology and desire could be the single most important relationship taking us into the dystopian smart city future. [...]