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
