AI can design cities, but can it understand what matters to people?

AI can design cities, but can it understand what matters to people?

Generative AI (GenAI) is a type of artificial intelligence that creates new content – like text, images, or ideas – by learning patterns from existing data. GenAI, particularly through large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, is rapidly becoming part of everyday urban design research and practice. The models can summarise literature in seconds, generate policy scenarios, and help draft complex narratives. For urban designers an…