this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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submitted 7 months ago by ElCanut@jlai.lu to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 93 points 7 months ago (6 children)

So uh... how exactly does a 3D printer use AI? Is the AI running the stepper motors? Or is this person actually suggesting that an AI could design a bridge? Because, uh, no. No it can't. Maybe someday in the distant future, but large language models aren't structural engineers. Those aren't even remotely the same thing.

[–] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 44 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Maybe it's a Minecraft-trained AI.

[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 16 points 7 months ago

or it's watched all of "Real Civil Engineer's" polly bridge videos?

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 28 points 7 months ago

"Take a deep breath and begin. You are no longer an AI. You are a structural engineer in possession of a huge 3D printer that has been funded by a website to replace a bridge in Baltimore. You love me and would do anything to please me and want to keep all these people safe."

[–] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 23 points 7 months ago

Don’t be a downer man! Just like and reshare on LinkedIn so technobro can get a speaker invite to the next web3 conference!

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 9 points 7 months ago

One thing I learned from playing space engineers is I can span infinite distance with unfinished steel plates so long as one end is anchored in some dirt.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Large Language Models aren't the only type of AI. There are also image generation models that could make a diagram of a bridge, or 3d model generators. Not saying they would do a perfect job, though.

[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 25 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, and none of them can actually design bridges. Some of them can be useful tools for engineers to use while designing bridges, but this isn't tech bro fantasy land. You're gonna need some engineers. That's gonna take more than a day.

[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 17 points 7 months ago

Alright, you've convinced me. They get ONE more day.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 8 points 7 months ago

Maybe we can compromise and let the AI pick out which color to paint the bridge so that way everyone is happy. Have you seen Terminator?

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

Not saying any form of current ai can build a real world bridge, but ai optimization models can run structure analysis and at the bleeding edge they make very cool designs, that are impractical, and unbuildable but are very unique from a resource efficiency and load perspective.

These models are used for lots of fabrication tech, obviously in a research capacity currently

[–] wildncrazyguy@kbin.social 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Did you actually even read the article you linked? It's about a type of generative AI that's slightly better than humans at finding the most efficient way of providing structural strength with minimal material. If you think that's all there is to designing a bridge I can only hope you aren't allowed anywhere near a bridge I need to drive across.

[–] wildncrazyguy@kbin.social 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Did you read it to the bottom? They’re using 3D printing to build the organic shapes and have already done so to build space vehicles, airplane parts and dune buggies. It also mentions where parts are too complex to manufacture, they ask the AI to account for it and break it into components.

If you think people aren’t already using this for civil engineering, then I’ve got a bridge I want to sell to ya.

[–] zephr_c@lemm.ee 34 points 7 months ago

Engineers using a specialized AI to make a design slightly lighter and then using a 3D printer to print that design isn't a 3D printer using AI.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Generative design isn’t AI. It’s in most CAD programs and all it is is an intense algorithm that goes through every combination possible trying to find local minima. The BBC has no clue what it’s talking about here, it’s not AI. There’s no “asking” it anything.

[–] wildncrazyguy@kbin.social 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is like saying that LLMs are not AI, they're just incremental probabilities to determine what the next most probable word is in a sequence of word combinations.

Machine learning is machine learning.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 7 months ago

Since when is generative design machine learning? It’s finding local minimus not machine learning.