Death of Distance Redux? How AI is Changing the Future of Cities

At the dawn of the computer era in the 1960s, it was common to speak of the “death of distance,” meaning that improved telecommunications technologies (remember the Picturephone?) would enable people to live and work at increasing distances from one another.  That prophecy never came true.  Instead, businesses worldwide embraced agglomeration economies—the productivity gains that occur when related firms locate near one another—triggering a new growth cycle for global cities.

Could we now be in for a new death-of-distance era, fueled by the Internet, remote collaboration software like Zoom and Slack, and, most recently, the advent of generative AI programs, which make each of us creators as well as consumers?  If so, how will cities change as a result?

A panel of Penn faculty will help us answer these questions:

• Elizabeth Delmelle: How AI is Changing How We Measure and See Cities
• Susan Wachter: AI and the Future of Housing
• Erick Guerra: AI and the Future of Urban Mobility
• Xiaojiang Li: How AI is Improving How We Respond to Climate Change
• John Landis: In the Age of AI, Will We Still Need Planners?

Presented by the Department of City and Regional Planning at the Weitzman School of Design as part of AI Month at Penn.

About the Presenters

Elizabeth Delmelle is an Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and is the director of the Master of Urban Spatial Analytics (MUSA) program. Her research centers on processes of neighborhood change, urban inequality, and urban transportation. Delmelle’s most recent work (co-authored with Isabelle Nilsson) used natural language processing to examine how the marketing of single-family homes shapes neighborhood racial and income composition.  Delmelle currently serves as editor of the journal, Geographic Analysis.

Susan M. Wachter is the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance at The Wharton School and Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1998 to 2001, Wachter served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she helped initiate several programs to attract investment into low-income communities. Wachter has authored over 200 publications, including 20 co-authored or co-edited books, the most recent being The Great American Housing Bubble (Harvard University Press, 2020).

Erick Guerra is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Associate Dean for Research at the Weitzman School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches and conducts research focusing on the relationships between land use, transportation systems, and travel behavior with an emphasis on rapidly motorizing cities, public health outcomes, and transportation technologies. Guerra’s most recent book is Overbuilt: The High Costs and Low Rewards of US Highway (Island Press, 2025).

Xiaojiang Li is an Assistant Professor of Urban Spatial Analytics in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research focuses on urban analytics, geospatial data science, urban resilience to climate change, and environmental health. With support from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Microsoft, Li is currently investigating the impacts of extreme heat on residents of urban neighborhoods across the U.S., especially low-income and minority residents. In 2024, Prof. Li was selected as one of the 50 Rising Stars in Geospatial World.

John Landis is Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at the Weitzman School at the University of Pennsylvania. His current work focuses on how generative AI is likely to affect city planning practice and outcomes. Landis’ most recent book, Megaprojects for Megacities: A Comparative Casebook, was published in 2022 by Edward Elgar. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the international journal, Progress in Planning.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.