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MZ’s Gabe Leydon will demo a bot that runs New Zealand’s transportation system (MobileBeat 2016)

MZ CEO Gabe Leydon will demo a bot technology for New Zealand's transportation system

At our MobileBeat 2016 event on July 12-13 covering artificial intelligence and bots, a host of new bots from brands and other startups will launch on stage.

The event will come three months after Facebook helped set off the bot craze in April, when it launched its bot platform for Facebook Messenger. Those three months will have given developers enough time to dig in and build some meaningful bots.

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But one of the more exciting demos of bot technology will come from Gabe Leydon, who will show off a way to use real-time technology and artificial intelligence to help run New Zealand’s transportation system, starting with buses. Leydon, who is chief executive of the one of the biggest-grossing mobile game companies, MZ, plans to expand the technology to be able to cover traffic lights, parking, and other areas, as we first reported two weeks ago. He’s actively working with New Zealand authorities right now to make that happen. MZ’s technology tracks movements of people with phones and other activity picked up by sensors, all within a live stream — and a bot on top can draw from artificial intelligence to allow users and public administrators to take action right away.

Through a single app, the NZ government will have a complete view into its infrastructure — for example, where the buses are, whether they are on time, and if they’re going in the right direction. “Users will soon have the ability to see down to the second where everything is, so that they can plan their days in a way that’s more efficient,” he said recently on CNBC’s Squawk Box, referring to how people will now be able to get updates on where exactly their bus is on its route. “Everyone knows they have to get to the bus stop 15 to 30 minutes early. All that is going to end.”

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