People often ask me what impact I believe artificial intelligence (AI) may have on architecture. For what it’s worth, I don’t really care much, but I do have some thoughts on it. Also, Elon Musk and his brother have a pact that they never bring up the topic of AI at dinner parties because it turns into a long, drawn out conversation rooted in speculation and can often turn into a heated debate.
Because AI does stuff for us, the question is always: how much does it do, and what is the quality of the work?
I equate AI with hiring an intern. Yes, you can tell an intern to do work for you, BUT would you expect it to be complete, final quality work? Hell no! You know they give it a good hard college try, and then you need to review their work to offer them further guidance for several iterations until they get it right (and learn how to do it properly). As the saying goes, “if you want it done right, do it yourself.”
This is exactly how AI works. Ask for something, check it, give it feedback, check it again, rinse, repeat, and eventually you just take it to the finish line on your own. It is not recommended to use AI without oversight. The AI software (like ChatGPT) actually says this on the little disclaimer. Don’t expect too much!
Yes, AI is always learning - just like an intern - but learning is something that never ends in the field of architecture. Architecture is called a “practice.” This means we are always “practicing” our craft. Architects are professionals who need to try things that have never been done before since the conditions are always different. Architects use professional judgement. This is described further in www.josharch.com/blog/design-practice.
AI does not use “professional judgement.” AI only does it the same way it was done a previous time. If it was never done before, AI doesn’t know how to do it. Also, there’s so many situational conditions that could be done PROPERLY in many different ways, BUT there is usually a BETTER way of doing something. For example, the architect may have had a conversation with the client about doing option A or option B. AI doesn’t know what you talked about. The client might want the ugly, more expensive option that AI wouldn’t tend to automatically provide. Also, there’s codes that are VERY ambiguous and often get interpreted based on how good of a day the building department reviewer is having. Plus, a good architect will argue an outcome in the favor of a client. That interpretation becomes a requirement for only that situation, and AI doesn’t know what some disillusioned government employee may have decided. The codes are always changing, and the codes are different from one place to another. AI is only up-to-date if it got trained (like an intern) for that very specific time and place. AI is not making professional judgements.
Because of the training that AI must undergo to become relevant, it will never “beat” a real architect in making the right choices. The only way this would ever happen is if mankind acquiesced and decided to just do whatever AI tells us to do - even though it’s not the safest and best option. I don’t see that happening. We aren’t that lazy.
So what is AI good for in the architecture profession? It’s really good for rough drafts. You can give it some basic parameters, and it will spit out a decent draft email, a preliminary design concept, or a list of relevant design considerations. If you ask it for something, it will give you something back that is usually at least a little more helpful than staring at a blank piece of paper.
AI can possibly help to elevate the profession since it can often provide a more advanced starting point for architects to start doing what they already do while eliminating some of the menial tasks. If architects can focus on the more intellectual parts of the job, then they can dedicate their expertise to the areas they really excel at. The outcome might be better, more creative buildings for everyone to enjoy. I am excited to see what the future will bring, but I expect to shape that future instead of artificial intelligence doing it for me.
If you’d like to learn more about our design process, visit www.josharch.com/process, and if you’d like to get us started on your project with a feasibility report, please visit www.josharch.com/help