Social policy is on the edge of a digital revolution
Fujitsu / June 20, 2023
Predicting the outcomes of social policy changes is hugely complex. Currently, we make assumptions about how people may react to policy inputs. But the variables are so dense that we have just been making coarse-grain approximations. As a result, local governments and smart city initiatives struggle with decision-making. Forecasting the future is difficult — especially with so many moving parts, especially human behavior.
But we are on the cusp of advances that could transform the effectiveness of governments’ policy decisions — and the interactions of businesses and other organizations with those actions. Fujitsu is pioneering the convergence of digital technologies with insights from the humanities – what we call ‘Converging Technologies.’ Fortunately, with urgent change needed in areas like carbon emission reduction, it means social policy development is on the edge of a digital revolution.
Social Digital Twins
Fujitsu is building on the existing technology of digital twins. These digital models are usually of smaller, self-contained entities, such as factories. We are broadening the ambition of these twins to embrace entire cities, regions, and even societies by applying insights from the humanities. We are constructing Social Digital Twins (SDTs) that combine the effects of people and the environment. They reproduce environments in digital space by sensing the real world and adding behavioral insights.
For instance, we have partnered with Hexagon, a global leader in digital reality solutions, to deliver a platform for the city of Stuttgart in Germany. This supports an urban digital twin project to promote sustainability and enhance the quality of life for 600,000 citizens.
To drive these capabilities forward, Fujitsu is creating the essential building blocks for future SDTs via advances in AI, such as Fujitsu Actlyzer. This senses people’s behaviors and facial expressions, relationships between people and other human beings, objects, and the surrounding environment. It can predict consequent actions by estimating the psychological condition of a person, using human-related digital information obtained from human sensing and context sensing.
The extraordinary future of Social Digital Twin Technology
A crucial next step that Fujitsu is focused on is the integration of discoveries about human behavior from the field of humanities. We are collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the USA on several research projects developing SDT technology. The emphasis is on exploring practical applications for joint research and technology in global communities.
Society is just beginning to realize the potential gains from converging technologies like digital twins with insights from behavioral science. Fujitsu is investing decisively in these areas to create the tools and models that will shape the future of social planning.
I’ve just scratched the surface of our work in this exciting field. Our new web page on Converging Technologies spotlights how social science-driven models will soon be embedded into digital twins of transport networks, whole cities, and other social systems.
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