#521 - DOES DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND A.I. IMPROVE ARCHITECTURE?
SUMMARY
This week, David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design discuss AI in architecture. The two question whether technology helps improve the quality of architects, AI vs human creativity & innovation, AI replacing architects, the purpose of AI, architecture presentations and graphics, and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Has technology improved the quality of architects?
(08:55) AI vs human creativity & innovation.
“If you look at the average architect or a crappy designer, is AI going to produce something just as good as them? Yes. When we talk about AI being limited because it's not inventing something new, you're comparing it against the 1% of any creative profession. Anything a human produces is also the result of combining many different inputs and synthesizing that information through their own brain. I don't know where you draw the line between AI thinking and true innovation. You could say, "Well, what you, a human being, have produced is a synthesis of these other inputs, so it's not truly innovation because AI is doing the same thing." But then you say, "Oh, but you've done something that's different enough that we consider it truly innovative and creative because somehow you've crossed that threshold.” I think there are actually a lot of parallels between the way AI works and the way humans work. Everything we produce is a result of other things we see. We might currently have the capacity to draw inspiration from a wider set of information, but it's still synthesizing.” (11:00)
(14:25) Could AI help you become a better designer?
“In architecture, what I see as the final hurdle for AI to overcome before I'm completely blown away is the concept of a project, because the concept of a project is a really weird thing. It's complex and difficult to understand. It's the result of ultra-diverse, unrelated variables and inputs being put together through this one idea. That's what a concept is. The concept is the result of exploring this whole fucking giant fourth-dimensional universe of ideas, then figuring out what the right thesis is for the project, then pairing down to a single statement. What's fascinating is that that concept statement is also robust enough to then produce threads from it, where the whole project relates back to that core idea. That's a really weird thing, and I don't think AI right now has the capacity to do that.” (17:49)
(21:06) AI having human sensitivity.
(30:00) Will AI replace architects?
(45:00) Core question for the purpose of AI.
“To answer all these questions about AI, the core question is, what do we want out of life as humans? I think that also points directly to functional, mathematical, pragmatic things versus artistic things. What do we want out of life? I think it's easy to say everyone wants to have the baseline things covered: To not have to worry about getting sick or not having enough money to feed yourself. Beyond those things, what does the general public want from AI? And then there's the question of what do AI companies want out of AI?” (45:21)
(47:02) Mission statements of architects.
(49:23) Does technology create better designers?
“The big question, of course, is, will AI replace architects? I think in a way, this technology is going to force the question, which is, “What is the value of architecture and architects?” Is the value more about the function of the building from a use standpoint, and the function of a building from a building performance and building science standpoint? Or is it more about the artistic statement being made by the creator and it being felt by the users and visitors of the city? I think that distinction, that question, is going to be forced upon us more than it ever has been.” (30:03)
(52:16) Presentations relate to current context & technology.
“We have the perception that these tools allow us to communicate better. But really, it is because these tools exist that we now feel like we need to communicate better. It's a circular loop. We're being forced to use those tools, but we didn't need them before. They’re just relevant to our current context. It’s the same thing with AI. We feel like we have to use these tools to stay relevant within the period of time that these tools have been showing up.” (53:20)
“I don't believe that my capacity as an architect to design is better now because I'm using digital tools. If I had existed at a time when everything was done by hand, my capacity to produce good design would be identical. If anything, I could see an argument that the quality of architects now and their design skill set is lesser than it was X years ago, because the amount of things an architect has to learn and do today to keep up with society is ten times what it was before. The amount of time they have left to spend on design is exactly the issue. All of our time goes toward BIM, VR, AI, producing construction document sets, communication, and documenting everything. All that is time away from the architect honing their craft of just designing. And you need that time. I don't think technology has played any role at all in improving the quality of design for myself or architects in general.” (56:10)
