Moral responsibility and action in the use of artificial intelligence in construction
In the first of our 2021 Thomas Telford Lecture Series, Management, Procurement and Law editor, Dr Simon Smith talks to Philip McAleenan about his award winning paper on the moral responsibility and action in the use of artificial intelligence in construction.
It has been said that AI is with us and that there is no reversing progress in this field. Whether the latter is true or not, it is certainly true that AI has entered the construction industry and there are technological developments occurring in various realms of the industry from the design process to production and logistics, and to the on-site monitoring of the speed of construction, efficiency and worker and plant interactions. The developments are promoted not only as a benefit to the industry but necessary to its development into the future. This presentation will not negate such benefits, but will instead give consideration to the unintended consequences of a system that is capable and becoming more capable all the time of making decisions independently of human operators. It will examine the potential for harmful outputs and make the case for the retention of human control over all decision making impacting societal, industry and worker needs, including decisions about the design and development of AI systems.
This paper won a 2021 Parkman medal, best paper published by the Institution in the previous year on the practical aspects of the control or management, including project management of the design and/or construction of a specific scheme.
Read the paper for free: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/full/10.1680/jmapl.19.00056
More about our awards: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/page/awards
In the first of our 2021 Thomas Telford Lecture Series, Management, Procurement and Law editor, Dr Simon Smith talks to Philip McAleenan about his award winning paper on the moral responsibility and action in the use of artificial intelligence in construction.
It has been said that AI is with us and that there is no reversing progress in this field. Whether the latter is true or not, it is certainly true that AI has entered the construction industry and there are technological developments occurring in various realms of the industry from the design process to production and logistics, and to the on-site monitoring of the speed of construction, efficiency and worker and plant interactions. The developments are promoted not only as a benefit to the industry but necessary to its development into the future. This presentation will not negate such benefits, but will instead give consideration to the unintended consequences of a system that is capable and becoming more capable all the time of making decisions independently of human operators. It will examine the potential for harmful outputs and make the case for the retention of human control over all decision making impacting societal, industry and worker needs, including decisions about the design and development of AI systems.
This paper won a 2021 Parkman medal, best paper published by the Institution in the previous year on the practical aspects of the control or management, including project management of the design and/or construction of a specific scheme.
Read the paper for free: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/full/10.1680/jmapl.19.00056
More about our awards: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/page/awards
