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Abstract: Formulating policies for the adoption of
AI in urban planning must reconcile this transformative potential with widely
held misconceptions and ethical challenges which hinder the responsible
adoption of this important technology (Xu et al., 2018). This paper addresses
the most common myths and stereotypes associated with AI in urban planning —
namely, skepticism about AI being unsustainable, opaque, biased, unregulated,
and discriminatory. These worries tap into larger fears about using AI as a
system of control and domination over urban populations (Santiago 2025a;
Santiago 2024a). Using secondary data from planning literature, AI governance
frameworks in multiple jurisdictions, and a landmark 2025 global survey of
1,645 researchers across 111 countries (Frontiers, 2025), this paper employs an
expository research design to analyze pathways toward the normalization of AI
Research in urban planning and contextualizes these pathways to futures
thinking on sustainable cities. This paper pursue five interrelated objectives:
(1) conceptualize the incorporation of AI Research into urban planning as a
trajectory with purposely designed governance, (2) reveal the value for AI to
alter existing power relations and compel emerging modes of participatory
governance, (3) elaborate on how AI
Research ethics and governance related to specific countries influence these
interactions, (4) advocate ways for rationalizing AI Research into more
context-responsive, (5) address particular gaps in adoption of AI Research in
developing nations. To conclude the study, a framework is encouraged for
implementation through its integration with urban planning within the context
of social-ecological futures, and an appeal for normalization in the research
of AI as a useful analytical and modelling instrument toward effectively
addressing some of the great societal and environmental questions of our time. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.51505/ijaemr.2026.11224 |
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