Artificial intelligence (AI) is billed as the next big thing for ensuring cities are safe against crime and terrorists as nations embark on smart city projects to improve urban living.

As much as $528 million, or 22 per cent, of Singapore’s tech budget this year has been set aside for security – the most ever. A huge part of the security budget will go to the first Government Security Operation Centre, which features AI and the analytics smarts to detect cyber threats.

But crowdsourcing intelligence from real people must not be ignored either, said Mr Muhammad Faizal Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s Homeland Defence Programme at the Centre of Excellence for National Security.

“The other ‘sensors’ are people,” he said, citing the SGSecure mobile app that enables citizens to be more involved. Launched last September, it lets people report suspicious incidents or objects.