Continuing Education: Artificial Intelligence

Depending on the people you talk to, architects approach artificial intelligence (AI) with a range of anticipation, skepticism, or dread. Some say algorithms will handle drudge work and free designers to focus on the more creative aspects of their jobs. Others assert that AI won't live up to its hype--at least not in the near future--and will make only marginal improvements in the profession. And a third group worries that software that learns on its own will put a lot of architects out of work. Science fiction writers have been imagining robots that think like human beings for more than 100 years.