Urban scale artificial intelligence (AI) is most frequently structured to sense and gather as much information as possible. Is this the most appropriate evaluation of intelligence? Many descriptions of so-called Smart Cities focus exclusively on their sensorial capabilities, but little is given to their cognitive capacities. Discussion of the deployment of computation within the urban environment has largely avoided notions of cognition, though a capacity for cognition is ultimately what we are asking of anything that is to be "smart". Cognition itself may be presented in a variety of ways, and determining what structure is most appropriate for urban scale AI is a critical discussion with significant implications for our collective ecological footprint. This article attempts to frame the integration of urban scale AI within a discussion of cognitive structures by building from the work of Benjamin Bratton and Edwin Hutchins to analyze the material culture of Masdar City and the Internet of Things, ultimately arguing that strategies of distributed cognition are both more feasible and more performative than a traditional Smart City model.

With weak Artificial Intelligence in the pockets of the majority of American adults, a societal introduction of a strong Artificial Intelligence or sentience seems close. Although the "intelligence" of our phones' intelligence can be laughably brittle, the learning capacity demonstrated by the Internet of Things suggests more robust intelligence is on the way, and some would say it has already arrived. Several private technology firms have asserted that a robust Artificial Intelligence already exists and thought leaders within computation are lining up to ensure that it is not evil. Regardless of the morality of Artificial Intelligence, if our charge as architects is to design occupiable space, then we need to consider post-anthropocentric ecologies as well as how to adapt our design strategies to reflect inclusion of other species. This article describes two linked lines of thought, a meditation on the pending societal inclusion of the robotic other and why that robotic sentience may arrive from an unexpected origin and can reshape how we conceive of architecture itself.

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