Expert Q&A: What does AI mean for engineers?

The disruptive potential of AI has rarely been away from the front pages in recent months. And despite some positive news (for instance the recent AI-enabled discovery of a new class of antibiotics) the tone of much of this coverage has been largely chilling, with warnings of redundant professions and even existential threats to humanity itself now landing on an almost weekly basis.  

Whilst the future is unclear, there’s little doubt that AI will have a profound impact on many areas of economic and human activity, including engineering.  So what might it mean for engineering and engineers specifically? What new opportunities will it open up? What challenges does it present? And how can engineers ensure they are equipped to make the best possible use of these powerful new tools?

We put these questions to a panel of AI experts including Dr Richard Ahlfeld, CEO and Founder of Monolith, an AI platform used by some of the world’s leading automotive, aerospace and industrial engineering firms; Professor Mark Girolami, Chief Scientist at the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science; and ChatGPT, the AI chatbot at the heart of much recent coverage.