Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Creative Thinking

Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Creative Thinking

Recently I spent the day attending a client symposium about how technology is transforming the design and construction of a future generation of industry specific buildings and their interiors. Much of the discussion focused on how digital design and manufacturing technologies will enable the ubiquitous client mantra of “faster, cheaper and better” which has all but completely replaced the apparently archaic concept of how original thought delivers appropriately timed buildings of unique value, quality and personality. This client’s vision of how buildings will be delivered in the future was thought provoking to put it mildly. The adjective used by the presenter was “disruptive”. The topic of her talk was how pre-fabricated modular building technology is transforming and disrupting traditional design and construction processes and delivering buildings in less time and at lower cost. The narrative and visuals were compelling and convincing. Hers was a voice of the future, evangelizing to an audience of architects and engineers that the industry that branded the Winnebago in the mid-1950s and inspired trailer parks in every state after WWII is now a legitimate, sophisticated and well capitalized enterprise category that has the eyes, ears and checkbooks of corporate America, Wall Street and not least, our client.

Not to sound critical but an imagined future where the design of buildings is reduced to the arrangement of pre-engineered parts and pieces raises every single graying design follicle on the back of my neck. For now I will leave a discussion of the benefits of pre-fabricated modular buildings to more knowledgeable and sympathetic authors-and let there be no doubt that the benefits are many. I will even confess to harboring a fascination for prefabs at an earlier point in my career when I was among the very few architects at the Manufactured Housing Congress Expo in Las Vegas during the 1980s and 90s, where I observed the majority of attendees evolve from cowboys and contractors in Chevy pick-ups to venture capitalists and investment bankers in Brioni suits. But within the subject matter of this article I will share an observation, an expression of concern, an assumption and a confession.

Let us not confuse freedom to design with freedom from design. The former liberates designers from lesser repetitive tasks to pursue inspiration through higher level thinking. The latter envisions a future where the design process is abbreviated to selecting from an a priori menu of pre-determined parts, and variety is achieved by differing arrangements of modules and standard colors and materials not unlike the variations you would expect to find in a model home brochure. Want to make a process cheaper? Shorten it. Faster? Compress it even further. Design, on the other hand, takes time, and the freedom to design requires due process. No scientific evidence exists that can accurately predict the amount of time it takes to come up with a break-though idea. Therein lies the crux of my angst: a manufactured building is a commodity produced by machines in a controlled environment in contrast with design ideation which is a process requiring humans to apply cognitive intelligence, experience and judgment. The first is the completely predictable and singular outcome of a digital process; the second is unpredictable and infinitely more complex with as many possibilities as the number of neurons in the human brain. The first can be compressed through efficiency; the second defies compression because it doesn't occupy temporal space. So as we pledge ourselves to the mantra of faster, cheaper and better, we would do well to remember a quote from a client and friend, “no matter what you say it takes 9 months to have a baby.” Just an observation.

Undoubtedly some will opine that the extensive research and prototype design enabling pre-fabricated buildings and their components requires transformative design thinking- no argument; however once the prototype design team accomplishes its goals and creates the kit of parts, the architects of record and consultants for the subsequent implementation phase become assemblers. Skip design, pass go, and proceed directly to assemble. Consider that in this example one prototype team engages in transformative thinking so dozens of teams downstream can think less and assemble projects faster and cheaper. Did we become designers to think less? What does that vision hold for the future of the design profession?  What value are we placing on repetition versus originality? Evidence already exists in the digital files of every design firm where a generation of nascent architects and engineers cut and paste construction details without the experience to know why and how they work. As business owners we are paying the next generation of our profession to hurry up, click and drag, instead of stopping to think, ask and understand. Can our profession afford to pay the price for faster, cheaper and better? Will we advance because of technology or in spite of it? Collectively we are the trustees and shareholders of our profession. If we do not invest wisely now, there will be no returns in the future. Just an expression of concern.

As architects and indeed as a society are we willing to accept this re-definition of design for the sake of faster, cheaper and better?  Faster and cheaper are laudable goals but they should not be inherent in how we define better. Merriam Webster defines “better” as “of superior quality or excellence". Opening a can may be faster and cheaper than preparing a meal; buying a trailer may be faster and cheaper than building a house, but are they better? Are faster and cheaper better for risk managers, lenders and accountants? Maybe. Are they better for the occupants of a building? Maybe not, especially when faster means taking short cuts that prioritize time and cost over quality. Long after a project’s schedule and cost become historical facts, the quality of the outcome remains for the life of the structure. The value of an idea is measured by how it improves our lives. Go visit a typical trailer park or manufactured home community and poll the number of residents who stay put after winning the lottery. Just an assumption.

While we’re considering the impact of standardization, automation and acceleration on the future of design let’s take a moment to think about esprit de corps. Aspiring designers are attracted to the promise of imagination and unfettered creativity. Even technical schools educate students to become integral to the process of design by teaching design thinking. Design thinking is the cognitive process from which design concepts emerge. Design thinking is different from decision-making and prototyping. It is a two way connection between understanding a problem and creating a solution. By definition design thinking has its roots in originality. I became an architect because I want to be a design thinker and an originator of ideas, not an applications engineer, which is a career for those less intolerant and more technically adept than me. A true confession.

Postscript

The presenter at the symposium was a dynamic, well informed and inspirational speaker. For over 45 minutes she delivered her sermon without the use of notes and had everyone in the audience riveted at the edge of their seats. After her presentation, which rivaled a religious experience, I raised my hand with a question. Earlier in the day other presenters made references to Sophia, a humanoid robot programmed with artificial intelligence, and IBM Watson, which uses artificial intelligence to access big data to solve complex problems. My question was about the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of creative thinking.

Q: Thank you for a stimulating presentation about pre-fabricated modular buildings and their impact on the future of design and construction-it was most informative and thought provoking. My question has to do with how artificial intelligence will impact the design profession. Since her activation in April 2015 Sophia has become a media personality and has booked more appearances than a rock star. In 1997 IBM Deep Blue defeated the reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov, the first time man was defeated by a machine in a contest of strategy and cognitive intelligence. Today IBM Watson is prescribing complex therapies for cancers that were thought incurable by the leading oncologists of our time. You are an authority on pre-fabricated building technology and how it will disrupt and transform the design and construction of buildings. In your opinion do you believe computers will surpass and replace humans as cognitive design thinkers and creative problem solvers?

(Pause..........sigh)

A: I hope not.

Post postscript

The evening before the scheduled posting of this article I asked my older daughter for her impressions. She just turned 24, is happily employed in a tech start up, and is one of my best critics. She listened patiently as I recited my missive, word for word, with passion and conviction. Instead of being stunned into silent adoration she saw right through the rhetoric and made the following comments that revealed wisdom beyond her years. 

Father: So, what do you think about what I wrote? (feeling rather smug)

Daughter: What’s your point?

Father: What do you mean?

Daughter: What are you are trying to communicate?

Father: Well, I’m very concerned about machines and artificial intelligence surpassing humans as design thinkers and creative problem solvers.

Daughter: If you’re truly concerned, instead of stating the obvious and entertaining readers with weak attempts at false modesty why not come up with a game plan?

Father: Uhhhh-whut? (starting to sit up in my chair)

Daughter: How do YOU see the future of your profession?

Father: Well, uh, I’m not sure….uh, it’s complicated……..everything’s changing so quickly……..(is this my sweet little daughter??!?)

Daughter: Ok, so everything’s changing-GET OVER IT. If I hear that one more time from someone from your generation I’ll throw up. Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know, like what you're going to DO about it?

Father: Do? You mean right at this moment? Well, uh, I don’t really know……..it’s hard to say……I’m going to need time to think about it……..(she has her mother’s tenacity)

Daughter: If everything's changing, be PART of the transformation, not a BYSTANDER.

(Long pause)

Father: Wow. How old did you say you are now? (when I was her age I was too busy…..oh never mind)

Daughter: Look dad, this is YOUR profession, it’s YOUR firm, YOUR name is on the door, and YOUR voice expresses YOUR brand. What do you want YOUR clients to know about YOU, and why they should hire TSAO Design Group?

(Longer pause)

Father: (stunned into silent adoration)

Twenty four hours later I’m still thinking about our conversation, and I don’t have all the answers, but somehow I’m not as worried about the future anymore because I have a feeling it’ll be in good hands.

9.22.18

Notes

Sophia is Hanson Robotics’ latest and most advanced robot to date and a cultural icon. She has become a media darling, appearing on major media outlets around the world, igniting the interest of people regardless of age, gender, and culture, even gracing the cover of one of the top fashion magazines. Her press coverage has a potential reach of over ten billion readers in 2017. Sophia’s creator, David Hanson, is the founder of Hanson Robotics and a modern-day renaissance man who has built a worldwide reputation for creating robots that look and act amazingly human. After working at Disney as an “Imagineer,” Hanson aspired to create genius machines that will surpass human intelligence. Hanson believes that three distinctively human traits must be integrated into the artificial intelligence of these genius machines: Creativity, empathy, and compassion. As an extension of human intelligence, Hanson Robotics’ genius machines can evolve to solve world problems too complex for humans to solve themselves. Sophia personifies this bold and responsible goal.

IBM Watson is a cognitive computing platform originally developed by IBM to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy. Watson was built on the company's DeepQA project, and its advanced question answering (QA) capabilities are now being utilized by IBM and enterprise customers in a variety of applications. Watson is named after IBM's first CEO Thomas J. Watson, and the Watson platform was developed to take in questions that are expressed in natural language and then utilize algorithms, artificial intelligence and a wealth of data (Big Data) to fully understand the questions and return as precise an answer as possible to the question. Today IBM Watson technology has expanded to a wide variety of commercial applications, including driving new Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities with Blockchain, security, cloud and other technologies to gain insights from the billions of sensors embedded in machines, appliances, cars, and even hospitals. IBM is also applying Watson to embodied cognition, where it is deploying Watson's artificial intelligence (AI) into the physical word, including utilizing Watson in robots, avatars and spaces.

?The Seven Principles of Creative Problem Solving

from Breakthrough Thinking by Gerald Nadler and Shozo Hibino

The Uniqueness Principle: Each problem is unique and may require a unique solution. Studies of effective people show over and over again that they do not assume that previous successful solutions should govern the current problem situation or that analysis techniques and data collection are at first critical. For example, achieving an industry benchmark leaves a company behind because the competitor has already moved ahead. Also, in trying to simply to match its competitor, the company may lose again,because it did not adhere to its own unique characteristics or market niche.

The Purposes Principle: Focusing on and expanding purposes helps strip away nonessential aspects of a problem. The more intelligent problem solvers put more of their time 'up front' in problem solving, in order to enable themselves to operate more efficiently once they get down to details. In fact, they avoid the conventional urge to start by collecting data and analyzing the situation.

The Solution-After-Next Principle: Having a target solution in the future gives direction to near-term solutions and infuses them with larger purposes. The successful people studied say lofty ideals and vision are essential if one is to enjoy continuing outstanding results. Conventional thinkers try to apply knowledge directly to the problem situation. Innovative thinkers use knowledge to stimulate new conceptions and of ideal solutions.

The Systems Principle: Every problem is part of a larger system of problems, and solving one problem inevitably leads to another. Having a clear framework of what elements and dimensions comprise a solution ensures its workability and implementation. The successful solution-finders studied had a framework in their minds, one they used to formulate a solution of any sort. Intuitively, they were applying a systems perspective.

The Limited Information Collection Principle: Excessive data gathering may create an expert in the problem area, but knowing too much about it will probably prevent the discovery of some excellent alternatives. The successful leaders and problem solvers studied know that it is impossible for data to be accurate. Realizing that there is no such thing as "hard" data, they know how to cope with "soft" data. They further realize that it is not possible to get all the data. Their advise is to identify the purposes of the information you think you need to collect about the system or problem and limit your data collection

The People Design Principle: Those who will carry out and use the solution should be intimately and continuously involved in its development. Also, in designing for other people, the solution should include only the critical details to allow some flexibility to those who must apply the solution. The concept of including many people in the solution process is not new. Yet a study showed that only 5% of companies had given employees any training in group decision making or problem solving in the past year.

The Betterment Timeline Principle: The only way to preserve the vitality of a solution is to build in and then monitor a program for continual change. The sequence of Breakthrough Thinking solutions thus becomes a bridge to a better future. The successful leaders and problem solvers we studied sought to move as quickly as possible to achieve their ultimate vision. Therefore, change was continual through all of their efforts and was intuitively basedon repeating the Breakthrough Thinking principles.