Upstream of value disconnects: The model-ready city and the material conditions of urban AI

Public values in algorithmic governance repeatedly change form as they enter technical systems, becoming narrower, more procedural and harder to reconcile in practice. Five recurrent ‘value disconnects’ draw attention to how desirable commitments can generate unintended effects across institutional settings. This commentary extends their account by asking why similar disconnects recur in urban algorithmic governance. I introduce the ‘model-ready city’ to describe an institutional and material formation in which urban activities, professional judgements and administrative responses have been reorganised so that models can receive data, generate outputs and shape public action. ‘Model-readiness’ is the process through which this formation is produced, and urban artificial intelligence acquires its operational capacity within it. Drawing on the development of city brains in China, including their platform infrastructures and supporting data labour, I argue that value disconnects emerge through the preparation of urban environments for modelling as well as during implementation. This essay asks which urban realities become model essay-ready, by whom and at what cost.