Saudi Arabia’s $500 million mega-city Neom is creating plans to harvest an unprecedented amount of data from future residents. Experts say it’s either dystopian or genius.

Saudi Arabia’s $500 million mega-city Neom is creating plans to harvest an unprecedented amount of data from future residents. Experts say it’s either dystopian or genius.

In 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that a new city would be built from scratch in Saudi Arabia's northwest deserts.

Neom would be "a place for dreamers," he said, adding the $500 billion city would run by artificial intelligence and be funded by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.

Early plans for the city imagined flying taxis, holographic teachers, and an artificial moon. But few concrete details emerged until this January, when Neom authorities announced "The Line," a string of settlements connected by a vast subterranean transport system.

Beating back doubts over funding and feasibility, work is moving ahead, as it is at several of the crown prince's other pet projects.

Last month James Bradley, Neom's head of technology, told ZDNet he wanted to collect 90% of available data from residents and smart infrastructure. Existing smart cities use about 1% of such data, Bradley added, without providing specifics.

Bradley's interview is the first insight into how Neom will run. The Neom press office declined to comment for this story.

Current smart cities like Songdo, South Korea, use data from internet of things sensors to perform actions like alert people when their bus is approaching or prevent water waste “” but nothing in existence comes close