2023-12-25 20:45:08
The Architectural Association School, in London, in 2022. ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
A venerable London institution, created in 1847, the Architectural Association (AA) School is dedicating a master’s program to artificial intelligence (AI) this year. “It’s a revolution that has begun, says Michael Weinstock, president of the school’s academic council. The students will grab the tools, it’s inevitable. It’s up to us to find intelligent ways to work with these tools. »
At the AA School, the challenge of the master’s degree is to question the impact of AI on creativity: “AI is redefining what makes a good architect. Today, in most agencies, a student is expected to know how to code and how to move from one software to another. Almost none of my students can draw. » Many students are already using ChatGPT for their diploma projects. The school admitted it, provided they declared: “Creativity becomes more curatorial, especially in the early design phases. We adapt our assessment techniques accordingly. Argumentation and debate will take an increasingly important place in the presentation of diplomas. »
On the other side of the Atlantic, in Los Angeles, teachers at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), a school at the forefront of new technologies, have also immersed themselves in AI. Responsible for the third cycle, David Ruy set up, four years ago, a program based on a very primitive AI tool which made it possible to merge two types of architecture – re-dressing the Lloyd’s Building in London (Richard Rogers, 1986 ) in the style of a Gothic cathedral, for example. “The interest is not the result, but what the students see. It’s like a Rorschach test: by connecting things that have never been connected, they become creative. »
Architect, philosopher and mathematician, he considers, like his colleagues at the AA School, that the big question of AI is that of creativity. “The future will tell us whether the technological shock will succeed in unbridling it. Or if Noam Chomsky is right when he reduces ChatGPT, as he recently did in an op-ed for the New York Times, to a vast recycling company of the same, which it should not be surprising, according to him, that it appeals so much to managers. »
Facing critical thinking
Another major challenge for schools is critical thinking, which must be cultivated at all costs. David Ruy encourages his students to question the medium: “Where does all this data come from that feeds the models? From the Internet. Where does the Internet come from? From the military-industrial complex, from the Manhattan Project [projet de recherche du gouvernement américain dont l’objectif était de produire une bombe atomique au cours de la seconde guerre mondiale]… »
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