ChatGPT is going to change everything! Generative AI is going to make every job in America obsolete by the end of Labor Day Weekend! Even fast food workers are worried that a teenager working in a parent's basement will be able to flip 500 hamburgers an hour using generative artificial intelligence tools.
OK, maybe the hype hasn't gotten that extreme, but as is typical when a technology is hot, many tech people are trying to ride the wave, adding the word "chat" to long-standing features or promoting their integration of large-language-model tools into their software. So, manufacturing technology editors are getting inundated with pitches about how software that lets people create iambic pentameter sonnets about poodle grooming will soon change how factories make things.
For this session of our Production Pulse live video series, Bob Vavra from Machine Design and Mike Bacidore from Control Design joined us to discuss how generative systems really could impact factory floors. Some conclusions:
- Manufacturers are pretty savvy to what AI can do as they've been using it for more than a decade for quality control, predictive maintenance and to manage production settings on machines
- Generative AI systems have more potential to revolutionize design and management but fewer obvious benefits for the shop floor
- There are some solid applications hidden amidst the hype
