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Navigating AI: From Business Operations to Government Projects

This week, we explore how AI is reshaping the industry, enhancing project delivery, and setting new standards in creativity and governance.

Author

James Garner
March 25, 2024

This Week’s Wisdom: Tip of the Week

Tip of the Week

This chart, sourced from Statista, highlights AI adoption in various business sectors across American companies in 2023. It shows that nearly 70% leveraged AI for business operations, while about half utilised it for financial management and human resources. Conversely, AI's integration into product development was less widespread, with only 38% reporting usage in this area.

Timeless Words: Quote of the Week

“But AI cannot look for ways to intentionally influence your life. It's the same as electricity. Electricity might kill you, but it will not intentionally choose to end your life.”

The AI Savvy Leader, David  De Cremer

This Week's Big Thing in the Industry

The UK government has launched a landmark report detailing the use of data analytics and AI in government project delivery. This framework is a significant stride in equipping civil servants with AI to bolster the efficiency and effectiveness of public project execution.

Encouraging ethical AI experimentation, the initiative promises to tackle grand challenges within public projects. This collaborative effort, engaging cross-sectoral expertise, is underpinned by the pioneering work of various leaders in the field. For an in-depth understanding, you can read the report on the UK Government's website here.

What You Need to Know This Week

The AI Readiness Toolkit, offered by NextGenPSF, is a collaborative resource designed to help mid-tier professional services firms embrace AI technologies. It's structured to guide firms through the process of integrating AI into their services, providing a strategic approach to innovation.

Firms interested in progressing their AI capabilities can download the toolkit directly from the NextGenPSF website, ensuring they have the insights and tools necessary for effective AI adoption. For access to the toolkit, visit the NextGenPSF homepage.

Flux Feed: Curating the Latest Industry News

AI in Construction and Project Delivery

This article explains why project management leaders should embrace a data culture. It highlights that data-driven practices can improve efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making in project management, especially with the use of AI tools.

Legman, a participant in Transform's startup accelerator, aims to bring AI to the construction industry to automate mundane and time-consuming pre-construction tasks, reducing risk and cost.

AI is becoming increasingly important in the construction industry, particularly in project management. It can help boost project speed, improve design processes, enhance communication, and optimise sustainability practices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can play a significant role in improving safety on construction sites in India. AI technology can help identify risks, monitor progress in real-time, detect potential hazards, and make informed decisions to address safety issues.

It can also improve site inspections, provide interactive safety training, monitor worker performance, and optimise task and project planning. AI-driven wearable technology and virtual reality can further enhance worker safety, while IoT and sensors can contribute to making construction sites safer.

This article discusses five common use cases for artificial intelligence (AI) in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. These include safety monitoring, design optimisation, risk assessment, sustainability efforts, and equipment usage monitoring and predictive maintenance.

The article also provides examples of companies that are currently using AI in these areas.

AI impact on work

The article discusses the potential impact of generative AI on writing and creativity. The author expresses concern about a future where AI replaces human-generated content, but also acknowledges that technological advancements have always had both positive and negative consequences.

The article emphasises the importance of preserving human creativity and fighting against a future where humans no longer write.

Tech News

OpenAI is expected to launch a 'better' version of its generative AI tool, ChatGPT, called GPT-5 mid-year. Sources suggest that the upcoming release will be "materially better" and could include new capabilities.

The company is currently training GPT-5.

OpenAI's Sora text-to-video generator will be publicly available later this year, according to OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Sora, capable of generating hyperrealistic scenes based on text prompts, may eventually incorporate sound 🎶 and allow users to edit the content it produces ✂️.

The tool aims to be accessible at similar costs to OpenAI's text-to-image model 💰. OpenAI has not disclosed the specific data used to train Sora, but Murati confirmed that content from Shutterstock was utilised 📷.

Concerns about generative AI tools and misinformation have increased as the 2024 US presidential election approaches 🗳️.

Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has open-sourced the Grok-1 model, which is the base model for the Grok chatbot on X. The model is freely available for use, but it does not have live access to X content by default.

Nvidia has unveiled its Blackwell B200 GPU, which it claims is the "world's most powerful chip" for AI 💥. The GPU offers up to 20 petaflops of FP4 horsepower and can reduce cost and energy consumption by up to 25 times ⚡.

It also features a second-gen transformer engine and a next-gen NVLink switch 🔥. Competitors such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are reportedly planning to offer the new chips in their cloud service offerings 💻.

🔸 Robin Rombach, a research scientist who helped develop Stable Diffusion, is leaving Stability AI. Rombach's departure follows several other high-level exits from the company's technical team in the past year.

Stability AI remains focused on commercialising its technology.

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed interest in buying TikTok and has pitched the idea to potential partners, including Zhang Yiming, cofounder of ByteDance, and Sam Altman, from OpenAI, according to The Wall Street Journal. Kotick is seeking partners as legislation is gaining momentum in Congress that could force TikTok to sell to a US-based owner or shut down.

🔬 8 Google Employees Invented Modern AI. Here’s the Inside Story 📝⚙️

This article tells the story of a group of eight Google employees who invented modern artificial intelligence (AI) by developing the "transformer" architecture.

The paper they wrote on the topic, titled "Attention Is All You Need," has become widely influential in the AI field. The authors have since left Google and started their own companies based on transformer technology 💡.

While Google has integrated transformers into some products, critics argue that the company has been slower to adopt the technology compared to competitors like OpenAI and Microsoft ⏳.

📱 Apple has released details about its new MM1 AI model 🤖 in a paper 📝, revealing its approach to development. The company plans to use a diverse dataset 📚 and aims to set a new standard in image captioning 🖼️, visual question answering ❓, and natural language inference 💬.

Apple hopes to catch up with competitors like Google and OpenAI by combining different training methods 🎓.

Inflection, an AI studio, has announced its plan to focus on its AI studio business and make its technology available to developers and enterprises. It will now host Inflection-2.

5 on Microsoft Azure, with plans to expand to other cloud hosting platforms in the future. 👥 Two co-founders will be leaving to start Microsoft AI, while a new CEO, Sean White, will take over.

The company assures users that there will be no immediate changes to the service and data policies will remain in place.

AI in Other Industries

AI company OpenAI is set to meet with studios, talent agencies, and media executives in Hollywood to discuss partnerships for their text-to-video generator, Sora. A public release is expected later this year, with some A-list directors and actors already given access.

An AI tool called Mia accurately identified signs of breast cancer in 11 women that had been missed by human doctors. Tested alongside NHS clinicians, Mia analysed mammograms of over 10,000 women, successfully flagging all those with symptoms.

The tool has the potential to reduce waiting times for results from 14 days to three.

Fitbit is partnering with Google's research division to develop a new large language model (LLM) based on Google's Gemini, which will provide personalised data and health recommendations to Fitbit app users. The AI model will offer customised advice on workouts and fitness schedules based on users' sleep quality and other health data.

Users will have the opportunity to test and provide feedback on the new AI features in Fitbit Labs. Google believes that AI is a crucial part of the future of personal health and medicine.

Here is the latest Linked In Newsletter

Enchantment Under the AI: GPT of the Week

The article explains how to share GPTs within workspaces. Users can share GPTs with specific individuals or groups within their workspace and can choose different sharing settings and permissions for each user.

Collaboration with users outside of the workspace is not available.

The Almanac of AI: New Tools in the Tech Time Machine

Stable Diffusion 3 by Stability AI is an advanced text-to-image AI model designed for improved performance, particularly with complex prompts. This early preview offers various model sizes, from 800M to 8B parameters, tailored to creative demands. Commitment to safety and ethical AI use is key, with a technical report forthcoming. For more information or to join the waitlist, visit the Stability AI news page.

ConstructAI is an AI-powered tool tailored for the UK construction industry, designed to enhance skills and provide instant answers. This platform is currently in the early access phase, inviting users to register for a first look. Its primary goal is to transform how construction professionals engage with technology, aiming to upskill users and streamline industry-specific tasks. For more details and to sign up for early access, visit ConstructAI.

Podcasts: Must-Subscribe List

In the POLITICO Tech podcast episode, SEC Chair Gary Gensler discusses the potential threats AI could pose to Wall Street. He expresses concern about the rapid adoption of AI in the financial sector, which could introduce vulnerabilities into the U.S. financial system. Gensler advocates for a collaborative regulatory approach in Washington to address these emerging challenges. For a deep dive into Gensler’s views and the solutions he proposes, listen to the full episode on POLITICO Tech.

In the Lex Fridman Podcast #419, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, delves into various topics such as the development of GPT-5, his project Sora, and the board game saga. Altman also shares insights on his collaborations with Elon Musk and Ilya Sutskever, discussing the power dynamics involved with AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This comprehensive interview offers a deep exploration of Altman’s perspective on AI and its future impact. To listen to the entire conversation, visit the podcast on YouTube.

Meet Project Flux: About Us

At Project Flux, we're committed to pioneering the future of construction and project delivery through the lens of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence insights. Our vision is to be at the forefront of integrating AI into the fabric of project delivery, transforming how projects are conceptualised, planned, and executed.

About James Garner James Garner, the Senior Director at Gleeds and Global Head of Data, Insights & Analytics, is the driving force behind Project Flux. With his extensive experience in the field and a track record recognised by Data IQ 100 in 2023, James combines his expertise in data and project delivery with a passion for AI in project delivery.

Our Mission Project Flux aims to not only inform and educate but also to inspire professionals in the construction industry to embrace the transformative potential of AI. We believe in the power of AI to revolutionise project delivery, making it more efficient, predictive, and adaptable to the dynamic demands of the modern world.

What We Offer Through our insightful newsletters, curated content on LinkedIn, and engaging discussions, Project Flux serves as a resource for professionals seeking to stay ahead in their field. We offer a blend of practical advice, thought leadership, and the latest developments in AI and construction technology.

Connect with us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter for regular updates. Together, let's shape the future of construction and project delivery!