“Leathery sheets of rain lashed at Harry’s ghost as he walked across the grounds towards the castle. Ron was standing there and doing a kind of frenzied tap dance. He saw Harry and immediately began to eat Hermione’s family.”
That’s a passage from the last time I blogged here about artificial intelligence (Some Things Can’t be Taught). My point in that December blog was that while we have much to take advantage of from artificial intelligence (AI), there will always be a need for some form of human control.
The problem is that the more we develop, improve, and implement AI, human control continues to slip away.
Recently an article in Disruptor Daily reported on a new startup company that’s using AI, LIDAR, and robotics to create new systems that monitor construction sites. The company is Doxel.
The description in the article says, “One of the company’s autonomous bots, capable of climbing stairs and navigating the terrain of a construction site, scans the daily progress through the use of LIDAR laser-scanning technology that is accurate down to a factor of millimeters. The site’s proven AI then monitors those images for quality and overall construction progress based in part upon the previous day’s scans. Then, construction teams are informed of the bot’s findings to make structural improvements, all while being held accountable for any inconsistencies in their work schedule.”
My first question after seeing the article was, “Isn’t that the job of the construction foreman?” It is. You can argue that this technology will be taking jobs away from people. But you can also argue that the potential financial gains will be more of a benefit to the contractors and their workers in the long run.
Check out this short video from Doxel of their tech at work.
