Artificial intelligence has a wide range of applications;
however, the common motive among all is to create a system that “do[es] well
things that humans do poorly or don’t like to do.” There are various near term
factors that dictate how quickly artificial
intelligence will permeate a particular field/industry. Mainly, with any
type of new technology, capital is required. As professor Mitchell mentioned,
the architecture and construction industry is lagging behind aviation. This
fact is partly due to little cash flowing into the research and development of
new methods for construction. Additionally, the long-term future of AI will evaluated based on how economically valuable it
is and its ease of use.
My opinion is that the use of
artificial intelligence and robots in the construction industry can greatly
reduce building costs. The obvious reason is that, human labor can either be
reduce or eliminated completely. However, the social and economic implications
are not without concern. Construction is a very costly business largely due to
the risks that are involved. Human casualties have always been a topic of
concern, especially as building designs continue to push the limits. The top
four fatal causes (2012) were 36% falls, 10% being struck by objects, 9% electrocution,
and 2% being caught between objects. In the future robots could be implemented in ways that reduce human risk
and improve safety. Workers compensation costs can be reduced, if robots
replace unsafe human labor.
We already see AI in the form of computing between networks in contemporary
architecture. As energy becomes a more pressing crisis, I believe the continued
development of building automation system (BAS) will accelerate. Building
automation systems are implements to allow the building to operate in response
to its environment. No longer do the various building systems operate in a
steady state. These logic based control systems allow the building to become
transient. For example window-shading devices propagate depending on occupant needs.
Energy consumption can be minimized while also meeting cooling and heating
demands. I think the future of AI in
relation to solving society’s energy issues lies in logic based computer software. The way in which a
building operates most efficiently is dependent on a series of cost-benefit
decisions. Since the architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, etc.
systems are all integrated. Therefore, improving the performance of one may
sequentially compromises others. The future of high performance buildings will
exploit artificial intelligence, computer
software, and sensors to allow the building to operate autonomously. I see
the future of buildings as a transient living structure able to weigh the
advantages and disadvantages of various sequences of operations in real time for
an improved net efficiency. The basis of computer
software is to facilitate the building operation, which involves loops of
various if-then statements; finally to arrive at a position of most optimal
performance. The reason computer
software is because, though humans have the logic, it is necessary that
these large volume decisions be made very quickly. The issues that BAS systems
seek to deal with are dependent on owner needs. ASHRAE has outlined various
topics as shown below.
BAS computer software and control systems can address these issues. Studies suggest that computer software and human service used in conjunction can potentially solve the world's problems. The idea is that humans are better than machines at specific tasks that are apart of the large picture solution. With computer intelligence micro-tasks can be assigned to a large source of humans power among a large network and then reframed and stitched back together to arrive at an answer or solution. Though this may not solve climate change, disease, or geopolitical conflicts, the concept of sourcing human computation can create a new unprecedented flexible collaborative environment. Additionally, of course with the growing need of computing power and data storage, this will result in the growth of data centers.
[1] Article: Evolution,
Sociobiology, and the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Author: Waltz, David
Author: Waltz, David
[2] http://ehstoday.com/construction/fatal-four-safety-construction-industry-infographic
I liked your take on the future of buildings as a living structure that responds to its environment with all parts of the system connected so that an improvement in one area does not drastically decrease the efficiency of the others. I agree that the most efficient way to reduce energy costs is through cost-benefit analyses that only a computer could do as there are so many possible changes to the different building systems that must be analyzed in order to find the best way to obtain a goal. An interesting expansion to this would be the use of deep learning for the system to predict the needs of the building at a given time in the future and make decisions now that would be most efficient not just in the moment, but hours or days in the future as well. For example, the system can implement the more passive changes, such as moving the window shading to reduce heat in the building in anticipation of an increase of temperature. This would reduce energy use as changing the blinds takes a long time to have an effect on the internal conditions, so doing so once the temperature is too high is a less effective use of the system. However, changing them before the air conditioning must be turned on would decrease the need for the air conditioning in the future.
ReplyDeleteHi Janet! I agree that the use of artificial intelligence can greatly reduce construction costs. However, I also believe that the use of AI in construction will add extra construction costs at the same time. At this point in time, there are many bugs in the applications of AI that still need to be worked out. There could be huge maintenance costs at first in regards to AI if the AI isn't doing the job correctly. In fact, the maintenance costs may add up to be more than labour costs. However, further down the road in the future I agree that AI will reduce construction costs and will cost much less than labour. Great post!
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