If you’ve scrolled headlines lately you’ve probably seen something about artificial intelligence, or AI. Depending on what you read, AI will either destroy us all or turn the world into a perfect place. And, according to some articles, it’ll do one or the other by 2030.
In reality, AI is not new. It drives the computer or phone you’re using to read this blog post. For decades, AI has been a part of education, manufacturing, retail, and even road building.
For example, AI can monitor the speed of traffic entering a work zone and alert nearby workers when a car is coming in too fast. This type of early warning system saves lives, and it’s a perfect job for AI which excels at repetitive tasks and never gets bored or distracted.
So why all the excitement about AI right now? It centers around a new wave of AI called Generative AI, or GenAI. GenAI works more like the human brain, creating — or generating — new ideas. While traditional AI looks for conditions that already exist (like a speeding car), GenAI can create new conditions and draw its own conclusions.
GenAI is quickly transforming creative fields like graphic design, education, and even motion pictures. But those fields create abstract products. Could Generative AI help us build and maintain physical products — like roads and bridges?
We think so. For example, Generative AI could:
- Make new connections: GenAI could analyze past accidents and near-misses to search for patterns. For example, AI might notice a certain combination of staffing levels, weather conditions, and equipment statuses that were present in multiple incidents. Since it can process endless streams of data, AI could find patterns humans don’t readily notice.
- Review or create project plans: Generative AI could help us shape projects before they begin by reviewing our designs for projects and looking for ways to make them safer and more efficient.
- Improve safety training: GenAI could build adaptive virtual reality training scenarios that respond in real time to human behavior. This could make safety training sessions less predictable and, as a result, more effective.
There’s a pattern in the examples above, and you shouldn’t need AI to find it. All of our examples focus on safety. This is no coincidence. InfraStripe works to build a stronger culture of safety for everyone connected to the infrastructure industry, so we’re always looking for new and safer ways to do our work.
Over the next months and years, we'll continue tracking the potential of Generative AI. We'll keep looking for new ways to innovate. And we'll never lose sight of this important fact: While GenAI is a tool we can use to promote our core values, AI can never replace our core values.
That's true because our core values — safety, people, performance, and growth — are human values. These values live at the center of every decision we make, whether the decision is made by a senior executive, a rookie crew member, or a computer algorithm.