There is no reason why artificial intelligence (AI) won’t radically impact 3D printing, according to Adrian Bowyer, the originator of the RepRap project.
Bowyer, a TCT Hall of Famer, was discussing AI and 3D printing on the latest Additive Insight podcast, having previously delivered a presentation (‘Look! A bandwagon! AI and 3D printing’) on AI at the Sanjay Mortimer RepRap Festival (SMRRF).
In that presentation, Bowyer sought to put the hype around AI to one side and look instead at how AI technology could replace the role of a product designer. To articulate this idea, Bowyer displayed a range of two-dimensional artwork pieces generated by Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program, which is not ‘necessarily completely replacing graphic artists,’ but is creating artwork that is ‘remarkable.’He has therefore concluded that AI could have a similar impact in the 3D printing space.
“I don’t see any reason why AI systems shouldn’t design three-dimensional objects in much the same way Midjourney designs two-dimensional pictures from a textual description given to them by a human being,” said Bowyer. “We’re not quite there yet, but one of the things I wanted to do in my talk was to show, technically, one particular route by which that might have been achieved, which is not to say that it’s something that has been done yet.”
As the person who led the RepRap movement that spawned an entire market of desktop 3D printers, Bowyer is no stranger to hype. In the last year or two, AI has become the latest buzzword that technology providers wish to align with. But as somewhat of an expert in technology, Bowyer can see through the noise.
He appreciates that it is ‘rather gratifying and a positive thing about human nature’ that people become enthusiastic about a nascent technology, but also notes that said enthusiasm can run off in many different directions that are ultimately unproductive. In AI, though, there is legitimate reason for all the fanfare.
Bowyer describes AI as a general tool, quite like a computer, rather than a specific tool, such as a clock. A clock tells the time, but a computer can do almost anything if you put your mind to it. So too can AI.
“We have an existence proof that intelligence is extraordinarily widely applicable,” Bowyer said. “It’s what human beings do with the contents of our own heads. We know that intelligence allows you to do all sorts of things as human beings that cats, chameleons, and cows can’t do.
“So, obviously, AI is going to change pretty much everything, and the more advanced it gets, the more it will change, simply because it gives us an alternative intelligence on the planet that’s not yet equal to our own, but that is now visibly going to become equal to our own in the fairly near future. And I don’t see any reason why it won’t radically impact 3D printing in addition to all the other places that it’s going to impact.”
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