Artificial Intelligence

It's getting smarter.... and we've been playing with it.

What do you think? Are the images interesting? Do they have any use or are they just a bit of fun?

We are always trying to innovate, aiming to stay one step ahead. Embracing the latest technology to bring the best designs, materials and savings to our customers.

The reality is that AI is not quite ready for this industry yet, so it wasn't really a serious endeavor, but its making huge progress in other areas, and it won't be long before we start to see it everywhere.

Image Attempt One

Here we asked the AI algorithm to generate a garden room design for us with a few ‘on trend’ design aspects. We asked for things like large glass doors, an anthracite colour scheme, and some modern clean lines.

The resulting image provided by the tool took about 15 seconds to generate and is pretty interesting; it’s certainly unlike anything a human would create! :-)

Image Attempt Two

In our second attempt we asked for more natural tones from the design, specifically Cedar, and we also requested a hot tub, lighting and decking as part of an additional outdoor area.

As you can see it has followed instructions, but it produces a very strange result because it doesn’t really ‘know’ what its doing - ultimately it is a machine, emulating a human activity, and until it improves it doesn’t have any serious use. Yet!

Conclusion

Either way, although interesting, the state of the art ‘AI based’ technology is not yet in any danger of replacing humans (at least when it comes to building design, anyway). It is making genuine advances in other industries however, such as medicine where it is being developed to identify skin diseases, long before (and with more accuracy) than human doctors can. For that reason it is something which we should all certainly embrace and not only that but also prepare for. Perhaps in equal measure. It is hard to know how long it will be before the technology is genuinely useful, but it is always good to be aware of these things before they arrive out of the blue and surprise us. After all, no business wants to become the next ‘Blockbuster Video’.

Gallery

Below you will find a few other design created by the AI algorithm. Please take a look through and leave some comments - how do you feel about this technology? What do you think of the results at this stage of the technology?