BL Companies Vice President of Operations and Principal Derek Kohl wrote an article for The AI Journal to provide an expert opinion and analysis on the current role of artificial intelligence in the architecture, engineering and environmental design world. Headlined “Where AI Ends and Human Judgment Begins in Engineering Design,” Derek acknowledges that AI has become a daily presence, but that humans are still relied upon for experience, context and interpretation.
AI is one of the hottest topics across all industries in the modern world, and learning to balance that with traditional workflows and processes is an everyday challenge. For now, things like zoning interpretation, regulatory nuance and project feasibility remain places where human judgment carries the weight. Here is an excerpt:
As one of my colleagues on our internal AI committee put it, AI can “take the napkin sketch to the computer” by giving us a rapid, reasonably accurate sense of whether a site is even worth deeper investigation. In minutes, we can ask whether a use is permitted, whether a drive-thru is allowed, whether wetlands or floodplain issues appear likely, or whether a jurisdiction restricts items like retaining walls in setbacks. For the jurisdictions that maintain searchable, well-organized online codes, this early-stage screening is a real advantage.
But the value comes with an asterisk. These models pull from sources of wildly varying quality. Sometimes we get clean zoning language; sometimes the model pulls from outdated documents, Reddit threads, or Facebook debates. And because the consequences of an incorrect interpretation can be significant — especially for developers about to make financial commitments — every result still needs to be verified.
AI can point us in promising directions, but we don’t make decisions based solely on those answers. And in many cases, the underlying regulations simply aren’t clear enough for an algorithm to interpret.
Read the full article here.