Artificial Intelligence, Friend or Foe?

Context

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic! New platforms are regularly emerging and architectural firms are racing to adopt tools for a competitive edge.

But what impacts will AI have on the industry?

The AI gold rush is hitting the architectural industry as hard as it is all other industries.

The recent emergence of Artificial Intelligence, pioneered by platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney, has raised quite a few questions and challenges for the industry.

AI has the potential to cause as much, if not more, disruption as BIM platforms have over the last 20 years.

In Late 2019, my then employer asked me to put together a ten-year forecast for where I thought technology was heading, so we could plan and stay ahead of the curve.

While it was in the back of my mind, at the time, Artificial Intelligence was not my focus as it still felt like it was quite a way off.

A bit like Nuclear Fusion for power generation, AI seemed like it was 10 years from being 10 years away.

For the task at hand, I focused more on decentralization of the workplace, as well virtual reality and 3D printing.

A path I was quite glad I took given that only a few months later COVID-19 started hitting Australian shores and we had to rapidly put in place a work from home policy.

Like COVID-19 though, which seemed to come out of nowhere and made a big impact, in November of 2022 a company called Open AI was also set to set to make a big impact on the Architectural industry, and the world at large, with the release of ChatGPT.

While it is not Artificial General Intelligence, ChatGPT appeared to revolutionize people’s ideas of what was possible.

Once ChatGPT was released, it seemed like the flood gates were open for ‘AI’ tools to flood the Architectural Design Technology space.

In a short period of time, we saw the potential of AI systems with tools like Veras by Evolve Lab.  A Revit add-in that uses AI image generation to ‘render’ a Revit model in a matter of minutes with nothing more than a text input prompt from the user.

This tool is perfect for creating early renders for the client to assess without the need for an in-house renderer.

Another tool is Skema.ai.  Skema seeks to streamline master planning by templating your standard apartment types and using algorithms to calculate the apartment fit and mix in a given mass.

These are two of many examples that are available on the market for Architects that save an incredible amount of time.

But how are these systems going to change our industry?

Can we predict their affect by looking at other technologies and industries?

While these tools bring significant efficiencies, they also raise concerns about the displacement of roles handled by junior staff and specialized professionals.

The promise of AI to change architecture is very exciting, but every coin has two sides.

AI’s emergence, I’m sure, has also raised a lot of concern, not only in architecture but by all industries.

Industry Disruption

The first concern a lot of people have is being replaced by automated systems, and they have every right to be concerned.

Recently I went on a trip to Brisbane, Australia and stayed in a hotel that was almost completely automated.

I booked online, gained access to the building and my room via an app on my phone as I approached the site.

When the app failed to work, I received a physical room key via a digital screen in the lobby that opened a series of locked boxes on the wall.

In fact, the only human interaction I had for the whole week stay was with a pair of cleaners that tended to the rooms each day.

When you think about it, that is a lot of jobs that no longer exist due to automation, let alone AI.

The reduction of labour doesn’t stop there.

Think about the last time you did your shopping in a supermarket or department store and how many people were working at the point of sale.

Now it is not uncommon to see only one person managing 10+ cash registers. Again, that is a lot of jobs that no longer exist.

AI is the next evolution of this trend, the only this time AI will likely replace more white collar jobs than blue collar jobs.

Since the industrial revolution we have had constant pressure to innovate, to do more with less.

As machinery became more sophisticated, the industry of farming and agriculture saw a dramatic reduction in labour force as farmers were able to achieve far more productivity by themselves.

I am old enough to remember how many people had to be resourced to a project when AutoCAD was the primary driver for most companies.

Those numbers reduced with the adoption of Building Information Modelling and platforms like Revit.

So, will we now see the gradual removal of roles like documenters as AI tools become smart enough to automate the documentation process?

I have already seen the removal of visualization roles in firms thanks to the ease of creating renders in real time rendering platforms.

I would also wager that it won't be long before we have intelligent AI accountants and legal teams within firms.

This would give much more power to smaller firms and single person companies.

Concern 2

This leads me to my second concern that reminds me of a quote often accredited to Henry Ford;

“If I had asked the people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. 

If you have read any of my previous articles you will understand that I believe the business model of architecture has to change.

To me, it makes no sense with all the tools we have at our disposal, that our profit driving output is still 2D documentation with 2D details and static schedules.

The goal of most people in the industry is to use AI to create the same dumb output but faster and with less resources.

Imagine the beginning of the industrial revolution, and the owner of a company that delivers milk by horse and cart decides to replace the horses with a van or truck.

Only to have his employees pull the van with the horses.

This idea reminds me of another actual quote by Henry Ford -

"Many people are busy trying to find better ways of doing things that should not have to be done at all. There is no progress in merely finding a better way to do a useless thing.” - Henry Ford

Maybe, it is time to rethink the business of architecture.

Concern 3

My third concern is the over reliance of the technology and the willingness to hand over work AI and not thinking for oneself.

One aspect of the architect’s role where I have seen AI taking a much larger role in recent months is concept and idea generation.

I have seen design staff rely on platforms like Midjourney for concept ideation and optioneering.

What worries me the most about this is the potential removal of independent thought by the designer.

Systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney are based on Large Language Models. They can be more accurately described as Artificial Narrow Intelligence, great at doing a singular task that it is trained to do.

It is important to distinguish the difference between that and Artificial General Intelligence, a technology that can independently think for itself and learn rapidly.

Once AGI occurs, the whole world is going to look very different but that is an article for another day.

To oversimplify Artificial Narrow Intelligence, the platforms are trained on large sets of data.

Existing data.

If designers are relying on an LLM for idea generation then will the system be able to produce something new and innovative?

Every few generations we have that one genius architect or engineer those changes the industry by thinking completely outside the box.

Will we see a decline of innovation in design? or will AI become smart enough to create the innovation? Again, that doesn’t look good for people.

Some Positivity

Personally, I hope AI gets used to its full potential in material science, an area that doesn’t innovate too quickly in the construction world.

Can AI find organic alternatives to materials like concrete and steel and new ways to insulate or waterproof a structure?

That is what excites me. it is this field of study that can not only change the face of our cities, but change the face of civilisation.

The effect artificial intelligence is going to have on the architectural, engineering and construction industry will be dictated by our attitude towards it.

If companies treat it as nothing more than a substitute for labour then I don’t believe AI will see its full potential as the goal will be to achieve the same outcome, but faster and cheaper.

If we can increase AI literacy amongst staff and leadership, we can use it to enhance our workflows and do advanced research and development, only then will AI usher in some serious change to the built environment.

I may look at this in more depth in a future writing. But as AI tools get better I can see the industry decentralising.

Instead of large companies, the industry will be full of smaller single person companies using the tools to enhance their workflows.

Either way, the business model of architecture is going to have to change.

We can’t keep building powerful data driven platforms and workflows only to distil it down to a static 2D output and not taking advantage of where the real value in what we do can be found.

Data is the new oil, and we are pouring it down the drain.