Will AGI design your next project?
howlandwoodworks
| Posted in General Discussion on
They will have to take the pencil from my cold dead hand first.
Have we have gone past John Searle Chinese Room Argument?
https://www.britannica.com/video/186419/room-argument-critique-John-Searle-Turing-test
Chatgpt is coming for are drafting table as well.
Replies
The camera devastate the art trade in less you like abstract art but we still paint pictures and we have fill in our time with other endeavors.
Still it is hard to see something die off.
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid.”
~ Robert N. Rose ~
The best statement I've seen on this matter is, "Artificial Intelligence isn't going to steal your job. A person using Artificial Intelligence will."
I've used DreamStudio at the start of my design process to give ideas. For example, I wanted to build a spice box with a glass door. I put that in as a prompt and began to edit my input based on the images returned. Did one of them have a hinge pictured in the middle of the door? Yep! Did the overall design and dimensions give me a starting place? Also yes.
Rick,
The things that make us human are tickles pains and itches. Stole this idea a from John Searle and broke it.
Can't beat a good model in what ever form it may be in.
I did 2 point perspective free hand drawings at first. Then if I like that I would lay a Larson 30/60 perspective chart under a sheet of velum. If I like that then start doing models of molding and carvings. I don't think it would be worth the time to put my stuff into a 3D design program.
Did a lot of desk and credenza so I did do a spread sheet that calculator all the parts from top to base by inputing the pedestal size, kneehole, columns, bases and cap.
Below s part of a set of gothic revival in local red oak. (peer mirror, desk, credenza and barrister bookcase)
Carvings by Mary May
Tapered fluted columns and the rest.
By: John Howland and Keith Baumstark
Chat GP will not save you at a lunch meeting when you need to get an idea across. A pen and a napkin are your only options.
I totally agree with your comment, it's "the creative spirit in action".
Can Fine Woodworking as well as other like publication be one of the last lines of defence to the lose of this art forum and ours Ancestor’s archetypes that are hidden with in its rich history.
How cold are the plastic imager that adorn our homes.
How cold will they become as program trying to inmate our long heritage.
Here are some of my wife’s Great Uncle Fritz’s carving as well a photo of his brother Rudolph’s favorite dog Spritz. All three rest above the rich land they tended and all of their Ancestors stretching back to the time they came to this land at Lost Creek from far across the sea.
The rooster that Fritz carved is at Little Lost Creeks low water crossing down stream for his home where his breath meet his finished forms for the first time.
I will take my lovely wife there when things are hardest so she might soak he feet and splash in the cool spring waters so rich in her history.
I have many or Fritz’s woodworking tools that I hold in remembrance of and have used some of his tools to carve my own roster.
Will I must go for I hear some old tools calling my name now.
Unlike a computer simulation design program you have "Free will, because you have no chose."
Stole and broken this quote by Christopher Hitchens
Great story about computers and your free will. 7 min. read.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/AxTJuFSPdfhACJCea/the-stamp-collector
On an industrial level, I think it is inevitable. If a machine can replace 50% of a company’s workforce at half the price, and the quality is approximately the same, it’s a good business decision. If it helps the designer/design team create faster while retaining quality, it will shorten the time to market. It’s just good business.
As a hobbyist woodworker, I don’t need to care about the time/effort of designing or building a piece. The process brings me joy.
On the other hand, if I’m trying to run a business and feed my family, I’ll take any advantage I can.
Things will change but then again, they are always changing. When is the last time you sent a fax? Learn how to use it so you can exploit it and continue to be employable (or better yet on teh cutting edge of your profession). As a hobby woodworker, I don't worry. Tap into the new idea generator and then use what you know to do things AI can't.
This is such a great topic.
Design will, of course, change and evolve.
I believe it will be for the better in this particular case.
There will be 100% AI designs and 100% organic designs, and then there will be people who meld them.
I, for one, can't wait to both see and utilize this for the tool it is.
Is it that much different than what happens already?
We are all "trained" on what we see in real life and on the internet, and we use that training (Good or bad) to create our designs.
Often, these designs are straight-up plagiarized. Often unique, often mind-blowing, often terrible (MINE...:), often everywhere in between.
I see it as similar overall—just another tool for doing something we've been doing since the dawn of time.
I can see a day when AI will design and build furniture.
Right now, this is possible, just not economically viable.
Current AI though is a statistical model - it just changes a random pattern until it has a high enough probability that the words used to create it actually describe what has been drawn.
It has become alarmingly good - extra fingers and things that don't connect are, if not things of the past, at least less common.
You can ask for a 'chair in the Chippendale style with an elephant carved into the back splat' and get something pretty close. Certainly convincingly a Chippendale chair. The elephant maybe needs some work!
There is of course now a job role of 'prompt editor' - these people get 6 figure plus salaries. There is it seems, a knack to getting what you want out of the models.
Sadly, the devices largely expand on existing work so true creativity is difficult. There is, at least for now, a place for us.
I didn't know there was a job title called that. Although I never thought of it.
Makes perfect sense. That's decent pay.
I wonder if degrees are already available or if there are courses for this.
What a scary, interesting, and rapidly evolving world we live in, eh?
You'll find me in a dimly lit woodshop, dust floating through the only beams of light streaming in.
Minding my business while the AI overlords take over.
bing.com
You
You'll find me in a dimly lit woodshop, dust floating through the only beams of light streaming in.
Minding my business while the AI overloads take over.
Copilot
In that dimly lit woodshop, where dust dances in the slivers of sunlight, I imagine you standing amidst the scent of freshly sawn timber. The air thick with the memories of countless projects, each one etching its story into the grain of the wood.
Your hands, calloused and steady, move with purpose. They coax life from raw materials, shaping them into something more than mere matter. The rhythmic hum of machinery blends with the distant rustle of leaves outside, creating a symphony of creation.
And there, in the corner, the AI overloads hum too. Their digital minds whir and spark, weaving patterns beyond the reach of human imagination. They sift through data, algorithms churning, seeking patterns in the chaos. Perhaps they dream of their own woodshop, where bits and bytes become art.
You, the woodworker, and they, the architects of code, share this sacred space. Both creators, both lost in the dance of creation. The dust settles on your shoulders, a silent witness to the convergence of analog and digital, of craftsmanship and computation.
And as the day wanes, you step back, surveying your work. The wooden masterpiece stands proud, a testament to your skill. The AI, too, presents its creation—a virtual sculpture, pixels dancing in the glow of screens.
In this woodshop, where worlds collide, you find solace. The overloads may buzz, but you remain grounded, hands stained with sweat and sawdust. For here, in the quiet chaos, magic happens—the alchemy of human touch and artificial thought.
And so, my friend, keep minding your business. Let the dust settle, let the overloads hum. In this intersection of analog and digital, you are the bridge, the weaver of dreams, the keeper of stories.
Not to freak you out, or anything.....
I LOVE IT THOUGH!!!!
Just made my morning.
Its soooooo good. It doesnt scare me so much as it excites me.
What scares me isnt this. its the people who will use it for evil.
This though? This is gorgeous to me.
Me too. I too think this tech is amazing and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I just took your words and gave them to Bing to see what it would make of it.
What's interesting is that it is simply a statistical model. No 'intelligence' involved.
Thanks Rob_SS
That is very educational for those of us trying to wrap our head around the AI capabilities and valuable uses.
I’ve always used the term ‘artificial content’ (AC), instead of ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI).
Several issues to sort out here.
The first thing that occurs to me is that designing wood products is not a universal activity. Someone would have to go to the effort of training an AI on design by feeding it many CAD drawings (or data equivalent). Who will pay for that? Furniture makers, probably, in the sense that they might be willing to buy expensive software if it automates design. Manufacturing is already heavily automated.
But is someone going to bother doing that for home woodworkers? I doubt it. We'll be on our own for awhile. The small shop cabinetmaker has other skills that may save them from design automation, but only if customers value that and the cabinetmakers educate their customers about it.
Second, no software yet can be "aesthetic." Yes, you can ask a program to make, for example, "mission style" software. Would software be able to fashion new aethetics, like the work Peckovich did integrating kumiko into western cabinets? I remain highly skeptical. And square that skepticism when it comes to something like a Maloof rocker.
When I look at Ikea furniture, I wonder if it is already being designed by machine. I own some and it's good for cheap, short term (5-10 years) use, but you wouldn't ever praise it as deeply beautiful. So I think those people who do highly perfectionist design and build of very simple and plain items (like a plain box or cutting board) may be squeezed by AI, but I don't think that threatens the rest of us.
Computerized laser engraving, for example, far exceeds my skill level at carving. That's fine. Like most technologies, AI will both please and infuriate. I'm probably more worried about whether there will continue to be decent, attractive, affordable wood available.
Sorry, I meant you can ask a program to make "mission style" furniture, not software.
I don't think it would take that long as primarily it's going to need training on where to cut and places where parts meet are easy to identify.
The loose tenon has made mass manufacturing much easier - all that is required is to cut the part to length - no fancy joinery required.
I agree about manufacturing. It's design that I think will bifurcate: utilitarian commodity products vs. more human touch on quality ones. BTW, things like loose tenons have been around a long time. I have a 100-year old wooden toolchest with odd dovetails that were made by some kind of machine no longer available. The chest sold for $7 originally!
Some (most) seem to be stuck with the notion that AI is just a more sophisticated computer program that needs to be programmed by a clever human and can only do what the clever human suggests or allows. This is a delusion.
AI is already evolving into forms of intelligence that are creating agency and intentions for themselves, which intentions and the processes generating them are a complete mystery to we humans, including those who instigated the technologies and programming start-ups involved.
Our problem is that we can't seem to allow that there can be many and different varieties of intelligence - inclusive of built-in evolutionary processes that generate mutations, competition and all of the other features of the evolutionary process but manifesting via metaphysical patterns (memeplexes) rather than via physical patterns (genes) such as mammals and microbes.
In fact, AI has been evolving into to extant forms for millenia, using out big human brains as its substrates. What do you think languages (text-based and otherwise) are? What we call "culture", inclusive of large-scale metaphysical notions such as religions and ideologies but also the millions of fashions and fads, are all artificial constructs even if they have (until recently) been reliant on the physical big human brains as their "hardware".
However, these AIs have evolved alternatives to big human brain substrates. They're already creating ecologies that use paper, silicon and other materials organised (by language, technology and other primitive AI constructs) into other environmental choices in which they can live, form intentions, act and evolve further.
It's impossible to predict what these things will become; and what position in the remnant of evolutionary species humans will have, if we have any position at all. After all, one effect of AI evolution is the accelerating destruction of the biosphere in the making of what we humans think are "our" lovely consumer good and services. Our clever and comforting technologies, with all their gew-gaws, may well be something rather different from what we think - the detritus and waste-product of AI evolution.
As Private Frazer was fond of saying: "We're all doomed". Enjoy life in your sheds whilst we can. :-)
We don't need much to live well, just simple well made things that will last.
Good work has this quality of not looking overtly designed.
I've played around with it and it is fun but its just generating endless and irrelevant flavours of eye candy.