Surveyors UK

Independent insight on surveying, careers, AI, and professional visibility. Expect clear thinking, industry perspective, and commentary on how the profession is changing, written for surveyors and those working around the built environment.

Jul 29 • 1 min read

It flies, but not like a bird


It flies, but not like a bird

Hi Reader

I hope we are all coping well in this heat - my heart goes out to those sweltering in loft spaces.

Monday's AI in Surveying article is on the website now.

It opens with the people who tried to fly by strapping wings to their arms and flapping. Flight arrived only when we stopped copying the bird. Fixed wings. An engine. The same result reached by a completely different mechanism.

That is where we go wrong with AI. We reach for the human mind because it is the only thing we have ever seen do this kind of work. The machine produces something that looks like our work, by a route we would not recognise, and it is improving on a timescale measured in months.

The piece then takes it into a firm. A diligent surveyor, a thorough inspection, and a drafting tool that firms up a judgment the site notes had held more loosely. Nothing rushed. Nobody careless. The output simply reads so well that the gap is easy to miss.

That is what the RICS standard is reaching for with materiality. The line is not fixed. It moves in one direction, because the tools keep getting more capable and more of what they do crosses it.

Read the full article here:
https://www.surveyors-uk.com/articles/blog/it-flies-but-not-like-a-bird/

Before you go, one thing. I have been working on something for a while and it is close enough now to mention. It comes directly out of the ground this newsletter has been covering since last July. I will have more to say in the next few weeks.

Until next week,

Nina

CEO, Surveyors UK

Helping surveyors navigate change

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Independent insight on surveying, careers, AI, and professional visibility. Expect clear thinking, industry perspective, and commentary on how the profession is changing, written for surveyors and those working around the built environment.


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