2023 Report from the AIA Strategic Council BY DAN STALKER, AIA “In today’s rapidly evolving world, technology has revolutionized every industry, and architecture is no exception. The integration of technology in architecture has brought about remarkable advancements, enhancing efficiency, accuracy and sustainability in design and construction processes. However, it is crucial to examine the potential drawbacks, such as over-reliance on technology and the risk of losing the human touch in design.” This quote was recently circulated by New York’s Graciela Carrillo, AIA, the 2024 Strategic Council Moderator. She was following up on the recent presentation to the AIA Board and Council on Artificial Intelligence (AI), one of this year’s focus groups. AI is fast becoming a factor in architectural design efforts as well as construction. Architects will need to be prepared for AI as our profession continues to evolve. The AIA Strategic Council was formed in 2015. The council advances the architecture profession by informing the board and other institute bodies about important professional issues, opportunities and threats. Although it is not an AIA governing body, the council’s work is vital to AIA’s ability to serve the profession. The council approaches its tasks with an emphasis on an outward and forward-focused vision. In this spirit, the council focuses on long-term goals and outcomes of AIA’s work rather than the administrative or programmatic efforts that achieve those goals. In addition to AI, council focus groups this year included Advocacy, Carbon, Design, Economy, Equity and Health and Wellness. Each focus group worked to dig deep into issues that impact our profession and compile recommendations for review by the AIA Board. Many of these topics will continue into the next year and beyond. All are topics that will influence the policies of future AIA Boards. I’d like to focus on the work of the Design group. Nine councilors volunteered time and energy to learn as much as possible about Artificial Intelligence (AI), how it is impacting our profession and the ways we currently practice. The technology is not new, but it is very fast-paced. What our group decided to do was learn as much as possible, interviewing experts in the field of machine learning and AI and also prepare, as part of our presentation, a short AI video where we all contributed. We generated avatars, which we then provided Chat GPT dialogue and used several AI programs to make the avatars speak. Motivation: The primary driving force behind this endeavor was to gain a profound understanding of how the future landscape of AI would impact the architectural profession. The group was motivated by a collective curiosity to anticipate and prepare for the evolving dynamics brought about by AI. Outcome: Leveraging the capabilities of Midjourney for avatar images and ChatGPT for text generation, the group seamlessly integrated their process into Discord and Murf, enabling audio integration. The final touch was added through www.d-id.com, which facilitated avatar mouth movement. The culmination of these efforts resulted in a captivating 10-minute video presentation. In this video, various group members created their avatars and shared their insights, effectively conveying the profound potential of AI in architecture to a broader audience. Representing the members of AIA Wyoming on the Strategic Council has been an honor. It has also been a lot of work. Strategic councilors learn firsthand how the board approaches work and how policies are discussed and crafted. We also learn the value of nurturing working relationships with the council, AIA staff and leaders of the architectural profession, bringing important issues to the table. 25
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