CC2311

COMMENT
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Comment
A measure of intelligence?
by David Chadwick
Icame across this quote on my 'go to'
political website: "If you value
intelligence above all other human
qualities, you're going to have a bad time".
It's very relevant as intelligence is
featuring highly on most platforms just
now and occasionally, I hope, here as
well. This is in reference to artificial
intelligence and whether everybody's job
are on the line as a result of it.
AI has featured in several articles
recently, and I would take issue with the
second assumption, as the current use of
AI within the industry concentrates on the
effective use of information, assisted by
the increasing complexity and
inventiveness of human developed
algorithms, that take advantage of the
vastly more powerful computer systems at
our disposal. A bit of a mouthful, but the
point is that humans are still required to
interpret and act upon the results of AI
data manipulation, and that is based upon
their experience and knowledge of the
industry (and a bit of human intuition).
So will the latest iterations of AI - Artificial
General Intelligence, or AGI - which can
'teach' themselves to think, prove to be
more insightful, or are they merely an
extension of AI? Returning to the original
quote, it doesn't take much intelligence to
work out which jobs are most vulnerable.
Most fall outside the construction industry,
for example, and consist of repetitive jobs,
replicated easily with simply defined
requirements. Construction consists
mainly of physical activity and the on-site
management of construction teams.
Real time interventions may be required
at any time for a multitude of issues,
making it a 'hands on' job, and it will still
need input from experienced
professionals to make instant decisions.
The complex mass of supporting
information, engineering change orders,
cost management and scheduling also
relies on a connected web of individuals,
each of them reacting individually on
behalf of their teams and the success of
the whole project. Who is going to be
responsible for tasking the 'Artificial
Intelligence' with the job of overseeing all
of that?
There is a role for a greater reliance on
the intelligence driving a project, though,
highlighted at the recent Bentley Systems
Year in Infrastructure Conference in
Singapore. The huge amount of
information that is amassed to support a
project raises both opportunities for all
stages of the construction process, but
also raises questions about which
information is useful, and how it is used.
Infrastructure intelligence was therefore a
feature of Greg Bentley's Keynote speech
at the conference, and was followed by a
technical session which featured Bentley
experts and users, who spoke about the
management of structured information
using digital twins and AI, and its practical
application in some very interesting case
studies - outlined elsewhere in this issue.
November is also the traditional time of
year for The Hammers, the 17th
Construction Computing Awards. It was a
lively event, held at the Leonardo City
Hotel in London, with excellent
entertainment - and some well-deserved
winners, of course. The projects submitted
for the awards this year covered a wide
range of complexities, originality and
technologies and were a delight to read
and judge. We will also be featuring some
of them in future issues of the magazine.
You will find a full round-up of this year's
winners further on in this issue.
Hats off also to the Lighthouse Club
Construction Industry Charity, whose
CEO, Bill Hill, spoke about the heartache
behind some of the industry's worst
statistics - the effect of the job on worker's
mental health.
4 November/December 2023