How is artificial intellicence redesigning the engineering field with respect to architecture and product design? 

In recent years, new algorithmic and BIM design tools have been introduced, from simple 3D modeling to the most advanced simulation-based and shape research systems. The whole of these technologies is giving designers the possibility to manipulate complex geometries and to system different kinds of data that were previously problematic to manage manually. For several years now we have been using genetic algorithms and optimization tools based on technologies that allow us to understand trends and optimize projects in this regard. Particularly in architecture AI can be used to analyze large amounts of data and identify patterns and trends more quickly and efficiently than a human design team would. In fact, these neuronal networks are trained on a number of datasets, ideas and references that go far beyond human capacity.

Alongside these tools there is always a need for manual integration. In fact, such technologies are used in the early stages of formal research. Successively, the “traditional” design part intervenes to transform ideas and sketches into architectural models. Thus, there is still a big gap between what artificial intelligence can do and the actual delivery of a project. Then, technologies little known as Neural Radiance Field, which allows the transformation of two-dimensional images into three-dimensional ones, can greatly facilitate the work of designers in the acquisition of information from physical reality.

The discourse on artificial intelligence has a greater depth than that of a simple text-to-image translation. We can say that it is part of a larger process that has brought a real revolution in our industry and has allowed us to create curved buildings or structures endowed with behaviors difficult to rationalize. Finally, it has given us the possibility to transfer data through digital machines such as 3D printers, robotics and other tools that allow us to translate information in physical matter. There are, however, several aspects in which it must be made even more specific in order to facilitate design development.

The subject of artificial intellicence is not recent. Wanting to collocate it from a temporal point of view, when did it enter the world of architecture? 

Around 2007 the first algorithmic design tools were introduced. Grasshopper in particular was one of the very first visual programming languages that allowed us to achieve simulations of genetics and structural optimization. At the time that visual programming was introduced, also certain automatisms made their entrance in this sector, albeit not to the extent that they are now. Therefore, not through the use of neural networks but rather through algorithms able to manage complex systems with minimal human intervention. Besides, speaking of neural networks, the first experiments date back to the beginning of the century, although not applied to the world of architecture.