AI IS NO THREAT TO OUR GREATEST SKILLS
Last year Alexa celebrated her fourth birthday by sponsoring a well know TV programme about baking. In November, the Government announced the board members of its newly formed Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI). Whilst Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a growing presence on the internet and our personal electronic devices for some time, 2018 might be remembered as the year it went mainstream.
In October 2018 I made my annual visit to Digital Construction Week in London, a trade show for all aspects of digitisation in the design, construction and operation of buildings. I expected the usual array of products promising improved BIM (Building Information Modelling) workflow, collaboration and clash detection - but this is the first year I saw companies applying AI in the design process.
US based company, ALICE (that so many robots and virtual assistants are assigned female genders is seriously troubling) has software to automate the process of scheduling in construction. The tool needs a set of ‘recipes’ to be defined for each element of a construction project e.g. pouring a slab or forming a column. These recipes include information about material requirements, labour requirements and cost. The software then uses this information and a BIM model to optimise the construction sequence for various parameters such as cost and programme duration.
This approach could be powerful in allowing contracting teams to analyse the complex process of construction in a more transparent and scientific way to improve outcomes. There is also merit in this tool being used at the early stages of a project by design teams to explore accurately how designs can impact programme, and allow clients to be provided with more accurate advice on the likely lifetime of a project.
Kreo is a young company who are providing software products which have some of the functionality of ALICE but also targets the design stage more explicitly. Some of the basic functionality offered is to automate the validation of BIM models. However, the use of AI is more extreme in Kreo Design which promises to “simply select the size, shape and location or your proposed building”.
This sounds a lot like an automated designer. Should we as design professionals worry about this? Perhaps.
The formation of the CDEI ultimately picks up on society’s justifiable concern around the collection of data - and ultimately that automation threatens jobs.
As such there is often a natural recoil from AI technologies. However, it is important to engage with the technology available and shape it to serve our purpose. On Kreo’s website there is an interesting blog which describes:
“Machine learning tools can analyse data – learning from previous assumptions – and use its insights to continuously improve its decisions. It then uses human intelligence to enhance its insights even more over time.”
Machine learning is a subset of AI which - as Pedro Domingos states in his excellent book The Master Algorithm - is only as good as the data it receives. This means that if the source of data is limited, a natural bias will be generated.
It’s important to remember that these packages are just tools, and we need to engage and treat them as such. AI and the automation of tasks can significantly simplify dull, repetitive tasks such as door and finishes schedules. This could then free up more time to focus on the evolution and communication of more nuanced aspects of design.
The Get it Right Initiative recently released a report indicating the importance of more investment in design to improve the accuracy of information to reduce the costs associated with errors. It’s important that when designers use these tools, we do not allow the savings in time reduce fees; instead the time afforded must be retained to contribute to improving the quality of outcomes where human, rather than digital designers can best apply their skills.
This article was originally published in the RIBA Journal, Products in Practice (PIP) in February 2019