READ MORE: How AI is already changing engineering – and the role of the engineer
That scenario could be possible in future, thanks to new efforts at the institution. Led by Alan King, head of global membership strategy, a new working group has been formed to analyse and understand the opportunities offered by new artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT.
The group, which met for the first time recently and has representatives from across the institution, is considering every angle: backend data demands, customer-facing requirements, ‘pan-organisational’ opportunities, staff support, and public-facing activities.
“The ambition for each of those is to analyse, in the first instance, our current position… and then consolidate our existing opportunities based on existing resources and current AI technology,” says King.
Staff training on mainstream tools will start later this year, explaining the opportunities offered by new AI features in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, and how they might be used to improve workflows.
The working group will then evaluate where things stand at the end of the year, considering factors such as data risks and the potential limits of current infrastructure, before starting to create a plan in early 2024. That will include “what future initiatives might be, what we might want to invest in, what we might want to develop,” says King.
‘Immediate feedback’
As in engineering itself, the applications of AI at the IMechE could be many and varied. One promising area might be the applications process, says King. Applicants have to complete a “fairly comprehensive” professional review process, so he has been developing some proof of concepts to input and “interrogate” that data with OpenAI’s tools to provide feedback.
“Traditionally that's been done by our business development team – this could be something in the future that we can effectively bake into our online application processes,” he says.
“When they're filling in their applications on their website, they can click a button which uses AI review, and it will give them immediate feedback. They're not having to wait weeks to speak to an individual, and the standard that it can produce is very high.”
The current system is “quite Heath Robinson”, King says, with a framework built in Excel then dropped in to ChatGPT. In future, it could make use of Models from OpenAI API, which lets users set more parameters and build their own applications.
Before any integration into the website, the tool would first be used by the business development team during the review process or in face-to-face meetings with applicants and members. Such a system could streamline the review process, King says, giving staff more time to spend on other work.
Some chatbot tools could be used on the website “sooner rather than later”, however. One simple application could be an assistant that helps members navigate the website, but in future it could become much more powerful.
If the IMechE built its own Large Language Model (LLM), for example, it could train it on its own resources, data, and wealth of archive information. “It can become, if you like, an engineering resource for people to ask questions,” says King. “Then it can deliver really detailed analysis on engineering subjects or history.”
Having a closed system could avoid the inaccuracies and misinformation that crop up during conversations with ChatGPT and other chatbots, he adds.
From creators to editors
Elsewhere in the institution, other tools such as AI video generation platform Synthesia could offer creative opportunities for membership marketing. The platform has several capabilities, including ‘cloning’ human voices and reading out text with virtual avatars.
“You could do quick competency videos, two-minute videos, 30-second videos on things that the IMechE does,” King says.
He showed an example to a friend who makes short videos for corporations. “He said ‘To do that, to get an actor, to script it, to film it, to do all the stuff that's in that video, we would charge about £5,000.’ And I've done it in an hour on my MacBook, and it's very good.”
He adds: “What these tools do is they make us more efficient. They mean that we can do more, probably faster, and we can generate interesting outputs. We become editors, perhaps, rather than just creators… It should empower people and organisations to do more interesting and more exciting things.”
Improving the world
In future, other opportunities might include a networking platform that analyses member profiles and suggests collaborations and partnerships, and a training development tool that looks at members’ competencies and provides personalised training plans. “There's probably an almost endless list of things we could consider going forward, but they would be sensible places to perhaps start looking first,” says King.
By improving the experience for members and staff at the IMechE, AI could strengthen the institution’s ability to achieve its goal of “improving the world through engineering,” bringing benefits to humanity and the planet.
“With these tools we can work towards that, which is obviously always an overarching goal for the institution,” says King.
Alan King will be appearing on an upcoming episode of the IMechE’s Impulse to Innovation podcast, discussing AI in engineering. Visit the podcast website or subscribe on Apple Podcasts to hear the episode as soon as it releases.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.