Jobsite Safety

AI: Automation Versus Augmentation

At a talk on artificial intelligence in a recent safety conference, my excitement turned to disappointment when the speaker promoted a camera system with basic AI functionality—tracking hardhat compliance and flagging puddles. I'd hoped to hear about how generative AI is revolutionizing construction work at a fundamental level. Our industry is still grappling with meaningfully implementing AI technology.

Streamline Construction Safety with Google’s Notebook LM

Google recently introduced Notebook LM, which it calls an AI collaborator. The notebook was created with assistance from writer Steven Johnson, who wanted a digital Notebook to track ideas, quotes and thoughts ultimately helpful for writing projects. It’s ... an AI agent that you can load with multiple information sources.

AI Primer: Robotics

Robotics is a branch of engineering and science that involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Robots are machines capable of carrying out complex tasks autonomously or semi-autonomously, often mimicking or replicating human actions. How does that help construction?

Can Safety Finally Be Sexy? Maybe with AI

I’ve got a confession. Most of the time, I find a lot of what we do in safety boring. It isn’t that the work is boring. I consider myself lucky to have landed in a profession I honestly like. No, it’s just that many practices, activities, and even sometimes the language around the practice of safety can be ... mundane.

OpenAI's o1 Models: A New Era in AI Reasoning for Construction Safety?

For those who follow Artificial Intelligence news, the release of a new model from OpenAI has been a long time coming. Rumours about OpenAI’s “Strawberry” model have been stirring for months, and finally, paid users have access to two new models: o1-mini and o1 preview.

Contextualized Learning in Construction: Leveraging Claude 3.5 Sonnet for Interactive Safety Apps

It is a struggle to find engaging ways to communicate important messages to people across different technical understandings and aptitudes. A technical document with facts and figures understandable to an engineer might cause the eyes of an ironworker to glaze over. Conversely, a jargon-heavy document discernible by a qualified tradesperson could readily baffle a young project manager. AI can help.

The Future of AI Collaboration: Claude 3.5's Projects in Action

This article follows Dunham's piece on the recently released Claude-3.5. Here David discusses Claude’s “Projects” feature and one way he's used it to add efficiency to some of his safety-related tasks. You can use it to save time on a wide range of text- and document-generation tasks.

Snake Games to Safety Training: The Versatility of Claude Sonnet 3.5 Artifacts

In a recent article I compared GPT-4o to the newly released Claude Sonnet 3.5. There I mentioned that Sonnet's user interface had advantages over GPT-4o's. In this article, I'd like to explore that interface in more depth, exploring a particular feature that is quickly making Sonnet 3.5 my go-to LLM for safety management tasks.

Literature Review Extols Growing Benefits of AI in Construction Projects

Are you on the fence about whether artificial intelligence (AI) has a helpful role in your upcoming construction project? Then, it is probably worth knowing about a new peer-reviewed paper published in "Sustainable Cities and Society." The article surveys growing evidence of AI's potential for substantial impact on predictive maintenance, safety monitoring, resource optimization and quality control. Here's a summary.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet Vs. ChatGPT 4o: A Generative AI Comparison

In previous articles here on employing AI to support various aspects of construction safety, I have primarily relied on ChatGPT as the go-to generative AI tool for text generation. Other models haven’t shown themselves to be as useful, creative, reliable or fast as the latest ChatGPT model. That may have changed with the release of Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet ...

The Benefits of GPT-4o for Safety Professionals: Accessibility, Speed, and More

In May, OpenAI announced its latest LLM model, GPT-4o. The “o” in GPT-4o stands for omni, alluding to the model's capability to natively receive text, image, audio, and video inputs and deliver outputs in any one of the same formats. OpenAI’s demonstrations of these capabilities are downright impressive.

Talking to Robots: A Powerful–if Awkward–Way to Leverage AI

Lately, I’ve been talking to generative AI chatbots. No, this isn’t some AI girlfriend thing. What I’ve been talking to AI about is ideas. AI, specifically the ChatGPT iOS app, has become a virtual sounding board for my ideas about safety, writing, and life. This method of using AI has proven incredibly useful.