Artificial Intelligence is already in our lives today, whether we realize it or not.
And as best-selling author, entrepreneur and futurist Martin Ford delivered the closing keynote at the ULI Asia-Pacific Summit 2023, artificial intelligence (AI) will soon “touch” every aspect of our daily lives. , influence, influence.” .
“AI is going to be ubiquitous and impact every aspect of society and culture,” he said. “Every business, every organization, every industry will become integrated with and dependent on AI, and AI will evolve into something ubiquitous. [so] important to our future. ”
Ford said the real estate industry is no different than any other industry in that some aspects will be impacted both positively and negatively by AI. Jobs related to the industry will also be transformed in many ways.
next industrial revolution
Ford has authored four books on AI and its predicted impact. rise of robots (published in 2015) and robot rules (2021), he expressed his conviction that mankind is now “on the cusp of a massive turmoil.”
“Ultimately, I think this disruption will be on the scale of a new industrial revolution,” he says, comparing the potential reach and scale of AI to the situation where electricity is ubiquitous in our lives. said while
This turmoil has led to groundbreaking advances and innovations that would have been considered science fiction not so long ago, says Ford — behind self-driving cars, digital assistants and applications like ChatGPT. Consider a large language model.
Cumulative advances in computing power according to Moore’s Law, and the massive amounts of data that are being collected all over the world today, have given machines and algorithms “true cognitive power.”
So they can “think”, make decisions, solve problems, are approaching human-level intelligence, so-called artificial general intelligence, and can also learn by gaining insights and making predictions. .
This represents a paradigm shift and underscores all the progress we’ve seen so far, said Ford, not long ago when people claimed that computers could only do what they were programmed to do. He added that it doesn’t matter.
The notion that computing is limited to programming parameters has now been “upended” by algorithms and machines that can inherently learn and program themselves.
“This opens up new possibilities and new approaches to computing,” he added. Given AI’s purpose and access to big data, it can figure out how to solve problems and learn how to solve them. The problem has been improved.
innovation, creativity, progress
“[AI] It will be transformative and will greatly benefit all mankind. This will enhance innovation and creativity in science, engineering and medicine, driving progress across the board in many areas,” Ford said.
When it comes to real estate and urban planning, architects, civil engineers, and other professionals can leverage AI to innovate and improve productivity.
For example, a team envisioning a new building can ask an AI application to generate photographic images to render the new building. The app shows changes almost instantly and can even provide new renditions when prompted.
“Imagine if this collaboration with AI, or ‘conversation’, could be integrated with virtual reality,” Ford said. “It’s empirical, and it’s going to be a lot more efficient.”
The emergence of smart cities will generate vast amounts of data via distributed sensors, allowing city planners to know how people move around the city, where they gather and how they use resources. Now you can.
AI-driven predictions and real-time insights will enable more efficient operations, help future urban planning, and will be essential in the future.
While AI brings many benefits, it also has disruptive effects on society and the labor market, and its impact is seen in both blue-collar and white-collar jobs.
robot move
In just five years from now, many forms of blue-collar employment, including warehouses, factories, fast food, and retail stores, will have their human labor needs reduced by machines with increasingly near-human dexterity. So it may change soon. .
“Wherever humans are doing relatively predictable tasks, robots will enter,” Ford said. “This will have a dramatic impact on employment. We will have to think about the impact.”
These effects are also seen in knowledge work, and will affect people with college and graduate degrees. Nearly all work done in front of a computer today involves similarly predictable tasks, making it “highly susceptible” to automation.
Whether in corporate finance, law or journalism, “it’s becoming pretty clear that increasing education alone isn’t enough to protect against the impact of AI,” Ford said. “Society has to find a solution to this.”
With more jobs lost in the real estate sector in the not-too-distant future, the impact on office space, business districts and our cities will be more significant than we believe, and will affect all sectors of society. It can really affect the sides. .
Despite the impending disruption and change, AI-related risks such as security threats, deepfakes, algorithmic biases, autonomous weapons and AI superintelligence, which may replace humanity. Regardless, Ford is optimistic that the benefits of AI will outweigh the risks.
Solutions will be found through human ingenuity utilizing AI.
Take advantage of AI
“Our goal should be to embrace AI, maximize its benefits, and maximize AI on behalf of everyone,” said Ford. “If we can enjoy those benefits while dealing with the dangers, this will be a very important tool for us in the future.
“I believe this will be an essential tool for solving the problems we face in the future, such as climate change, finding new clean energy sources, tackling global poverty, and advancing medical care.”
And Ford believes that for all the great advances that have already been made as a result of AI, there will be many more notable advances to come.
“In many ways, we haven’t seen anything yet.”
