Architects are thrilled about AI, confident that it will take us into an exciting new world at the flick of a switch.
The Roman architect Vitruvius begins his ten-book De architectura (c. 25 bc) by describing an architect’s education. Craftsmanship – continuous and familiar practice – must go hand in hand with theoretical skill and method. He must be a man of letters so that he can draw on precedents; proficient in drawing and geometry; and a master of rule and compass. Optics will teach him how to use the sun to best effect in lighting rooms. He must also be good at arithmetic to cost his buildings.
He must be a historian, to explain why columns and ornaments look as they do, and a philosopher, high-minded, urbane, cherishing a good reputation. He must be acquainted with the principles behind physics, essential when, for example, dealing with water supply. Mathematics will enable him to tune ballistas and catapults.
Then there is acoustics, vital when positioning the bronze vessels underneath theatres to help the actors’ voices to carry. Medical knowledge will lead him to build in healthy locations; legal knowledge to draw up contracts properly, understand party walls, water supplies and such like. And all the time, he will be gathering the skills, knowledge and experience to be able to design properties that reflect well on his clients’ tastes.
And AI? All that can do is give an answer to a question. It has as much knowledge and experience and therefore judgment as a handheld calculator, i.e. none. ‘Intelligent’ is the last thing it is.
That does not mean it is useless: the problem is that, for all its staggering power, it cannot give an account of its answers. That requires human judgment, which depends on getting the feel for what AI can and, more crucially, cannot do for you. The importance of such learning should not be underestimated: it makes us the masters.
If the bright young things are seduced into giving AI the final word, we can expect many more delights to equal that of the roof blown off Richard Rogers’s Millennium Dome.
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