RIO DE JANEIRO, July 3rd (AMSP/CGTN) – – The use of artificial intelligence in advancing safe and sustainable smart cities is an important item on this year’s BRICS summit agenda. One standout example from this year’s host-country, Brazil, is Rio de Janeiro’s Operations Center or COR, a high-tech, AI-aided monitoring hub that will be used in security operations during the fast-approaching Leaders’ Summit in July. Lucrecia Franco has this report from Rio.
Rio de Janeiro… a metropolis in motion. Every day, more than 6.5 million people navigate the city’s streets. And monitoring for emergencies and crime: this… one of nearly 4,000 municipal cameras…
Rio Operations Center, known by its Portuguese acronym: COR. One hundred twenty-five, fifty-five-inch screens covering one hundred forty square meters of wall, make it the largest of its kind in Latin America. It is an integrated, high-tech center, meshing 500 sets of human eyes with digital data crunching over three eight-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
From car accidents to floods, fires and robberies in process. This intelligence center is built to provide rapid responses to incidents in the city. COR CEO Marcus Belchior, says reaction times have dropped significantly since the installation of data-driven algorithms, which didn’t exist when the center was created in 2010. Here, a fire was detected and water trucks dispatched in less than five minutes…
“We’ve been implementing artificial intelligence in our internal processes, in decision-making, and most importantly in building a more resilient city. The Operations Center is essentially an intelligence hub, focused on the metrics and indicators of how the city functions today, while also planning what it will become,” says Marcus Belchior.
Since April 2025, AI has been deployed in conjunction with 100 cameras capable of identifying abnormal traffic patterns and reading and correlating license plates with wanted cars. It is another example of technology officials say is essential for both public safety and logistics, especially in preparation for major international events such as the BRICS summit this July.
“We aim to minimize disruptions to citizens’ daily lives, while at the same time increasing our focus on security, policing, and visible law enforcement. The event also serves as a catalyst for heightened vigilance across the entire city, as any incident or occurrence near the BRICS venue, or during the summit, raises significant concern for us,” says Operations Coordianator Raphael Mariano.
And like before this major BRICS event, it is technology that will remain, barely noticeable… watching… preventing tragedies and saving lives.
It is worth recalling that from July 6th to 7th, the 2025 BRICS Summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This highly anticipated event will focus on key areas such as trade and investment facilitation, AI regulation, climate change action, public health cooperation, and institutional development. Leaders from the member states and partner countries will gather to discuss strategies for strengthening economic ties, reforming global financial institutions, and addressing geopolitical challenges.
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