Baidu built an A.I. that predicts dangerous crowds and stampedes

It was December 31, 2014. In Shanghai, thousands flocked to the historic and picturesque Bund, where there had been reports a light show would take place to ring in the new year. Unfortunately, too many people had the same idea. A dangerously dense crowd formed, and at a viewing platform in Chen Yi Square overlooking the river, confusion and a lack of crowd control led to panic and eventually stampede. Within minutes, 36 people had been killed and another 49 had been injured in the crush.

Sadly, the 2014 stampede isn’t the only deadly crowd crush in China’s living memoryEight children died in a school stampede in Hunan in 2009Three died and many were injured in a 2007 crush during a Carrefour sale in Chongqing37 people were killed in a stampede during Lantern Festival celebrations in Beijing in 2004. In 1991, a deadly crush in Taiyuan killed over 100 people. Even Shanghai itself has experienced this before, havinglost at least 17 people in a stampede at a ferry terminal in 1987. Read more...